Split off from Doris & Pat before Houston, as they decided to stop and get gas and I decided to get gas after Houston. They had planned to take Highway 59, to 6, to 288, to 8 to I-10 and onward.  I was going to follow a similar path, but when I got to 6, I did not turn. I stayed on Highway 59 until I-650 north, to I-10 then to Highway 90. The traffic wasn’t too heavy, moved steadily thru Houston and I was out the other side in short order. Whew! I am not a big fan of any city, but Houston turned out to be an alright town to move thru on a Saturday morning.

Highway 90 out of Houston, heading for Liberty was a beautiful road with pretty early Spring colors. Love the greens… At Liberty, I hopped onto Highway 146 and went north. This was one fabulous, beautiful country road.  Rolling hills, ranches – lots of horses, some goats, very few cows. Even saw a lemonade stand and couldn’t resist. I stopped, backed up and went and got myself a lemonade. The grin on that little girls face – from ear to ear, she could barely contain herself – really made my day. She got a tip too. Absolutely the best presentation I’ve seen in a long while. Oh… and it was real, made from scratch, lemonade. It was the best experience.

Ventured on up the road, came to a halt at a 4 way stop. Life flight was just getting ready to take off, ambulance, cops and a sizable crowd were gathered. I couldn’t see anything but that. Was it a car accident? Didn’t see any.  What else?  I don’t know, as within 30 minutes of arriving – everyone cleared away and/or left.  Ventured on north.  A little diversion in a nice drive.

I’m at the headquarters of the Escapees, here in Livingston, TX. Planning on taking a break for a week. I missed the turn into the park, as I saw the sign for Escapees but I turned into the Care Center vs the RV park. That’s ok, as I got to meet alot of the volunteers and many of the residents, as they were just finishing up lunch.  Learned all about this place. For what it offers, its very nice.  But someone told me, at some gathering, that this was nothing worth writing home about.  Well, I differ on that opinion.  The Care Center, allows folks who needs assistance to still live in there RV’s to get care. If you no longer can be mobile or have more complicated medical issues, you need to move.  But this place offers a wonderful intermediate care. RN’s, CNAs are on staff. Volunteers get free parking of their RV’s, meals and one works one month, then you take a break.  They even allow folks to come in that just need a rest from being on the road or to recover from surgery, etc.   They have physical & occupational therapy, chefs to cook all meals, a lot of activities, library, you can even get your rig cleaned!  As with all facilities, I’m sure there are some not-so-great aspects they did not tell me, but seeing it, meeting the people – it left me with a very good impression.

So left there and moved on down the road to the Escapees RV park.  As for the Escapees RV park… I don’t know what I was expecting, but was shocked by the dismal care of the landscaping, utilities, etc.
This is true for the section they put me – the old section!  BUT, its not true for the majority of the park. Thankfully.   Why they even put folks into the old section is my big question. It might be one thing if used as an overflow, but there were other spots open. They refer to this section as the “Trees:” and she said no one likes to park down there. Well… there is good reason and I will suggest that she, the manager, take a stroll down there, which she apparently has not done.

They apparently do not have volunteers to tend to things, like other places do.
Well, they do but they haven’t gotten to the old section and from what a few told me, they hope to finish it this year. Apparently they have been upgrading utilities, grading, drainage, etc and this old section is the last to be done.

Some places within the park have been fixed up, like where the lease holders live, but the campground – not impressed in the least.  One has to figure out what is campground, whether its dry camping or hookups or storage – and I did that yesterday.  This park is basic, no frills and that’s ok. But it has everything one would need and then some.  And the folks living here and/or visiting are as friendly as all the other Escapees Parks.  I am taking the trolley tour of this facility (& its quite large) on Thursday to learn more.

I’m going to ask to be moved today.  My site is so uneven, I tried to park normally (backed in), then diagonally, but ended up parking perpendicular to the normal way and still used all my leveling blocks (which I’ve never done before). Not good, but my fridge is level, but my rig is not level.  Its downright difficult to keep from rolling out of bed at night! The utility box is all rusted and falling off the hinges, tons of debris  (leaves, fallen tree limbs, weeds) cover this site. So grumpy here (me!), will ask for a different site today.  I got moved, completely level, got a gravel pad with green grass. Cats are happy too. And I’m still in the “old” section but at the very end of it.

Other than that, I love all the pine trees, and what looks like oak trees, but not sure I’m correct on the latter. Squirrels to entertain the cats, birds.  Great location of activity center, laundry, dumpsters, showers – all very convenient.  And… drumroll, this is where the mail forwarding service is somewhere near here.

Speaking of mail… I’ve done something I have not done before and I will do my level best to never repeat. I transposed the wrong number.  I needed my mail to go to 3511, but I wrote down 3611. Oh my God!  I have since taken steps to contact the senders, but the mail has already been delivered to the wrong address. Will the people send it back? Or what?  One item was cat food, but the other is my mail that I haven’t picked up in nearly a month – no idea what was in there, but I suspect my tax info is. Heaven only knows what else. Talk about scary!!!!  I even contacted the folks at the address it was suppose to go to, but they are out of town until the 26th.  I can’t believe this happened!!!  I am just beside myself on this… and not a damn thing I can do on this weekend.

These are the photos I took around Corpus Christi:

Do you see two Lazy Daze RV’s?

Several wooly caterpillars

Sand and vegetation

Brown pelicans

Brown pelicans

A pond loaded with ducks & large turtles