Thousand Trails

In 2015 we joined the Thousand Trails RV travel club. They boast all these wonderful resorts across the country that you can visit for a year after purchasing the membership. So now that we have joined  the club, we will be visiting these "resorts" in the southeast and northeast zones. The southeast basically is from Oklahoma/Texas all the way to the east coast from Florida up to Pennsylvania, and the northeast zone goes on up to Maine.
We recently stopped in Pipe Creek, TX for some paint repair and that put us very close to Lake Medina which is part of the Thousand Trails Texas resorts. We drove to Lake Medina to check it out for a later visit and were we very disappointed. First of all, the road to the park is very small, windy, and rough with many low hanging tree limbs. The area is not nice at all. Our 40' motorhome would have been a challenge but we would have made it as long as we didn't meet any oncoming larger RVs or trucks. The brochure shows Lake Medina as a pretty lake with boats and mountains in the background but this is what we found.
Here is the boat ramp to the lake, but where's the water? Locals told us the lake has been dry for 5 years.

Next we looked at the RV sites and what we found were a bunch of sites that have been neglected. Most sites were not level and had overgrown grass and weeds and had low hanging tree limbs that will damage your rig. If we would have driven the motorhome there, I would have been very upset.

They also have a "historic" building on the property that they are neglecting and it is rotting away. We would not ever return there at it's present condition, they would really have to clean the place up. Once you get there, there is nothing to do except swim in the pool.

Our next stop was Natchez Trace Campground in Hohenwald, TN. First of all you have to get to the park on narrow winding roads, then navigate around the 11 ft. bridge. Once you arrive at the park the check in was easy with very friendly staff at the office. Staff and management were very nice. Then it gets worse with the rough and very hilly roads that are in desperate need of repair. This picture does not do it justice, but my first words were "oh hell no!" when I saw this very steep grade. We had to disconnect our car before attempting the steep climb.

We made it to our site, number 314B and this is what we found. Broken concrete patios, rotten wood picnic tables, and only 30 amp hookups. I believe the electricity had issues, we could not run an air conditioner and have the hot water heater on without tripping a breaker. It was terribly hot and the one a/c unit struggled to keep the coach comfortable. No over the air tv service, no wifi and Verizon phone service was not available. My at&t was spotty,it would work occasionally. We would NOT ever return here.

The lake and the beach looked pretty nice, but when we wanted to rent a kayak they told us all boats were gone for the day.

In general, it was a run down neglected park in a pretty area by the Natchez Trace Parkway.

 The Diamond Caverns Thousand Trails Campground in Park City, KY was our next stop. This park is also an Encore Park. We stayed here using our Encore membership since Kentucky is not in our zone we purchased. This is a nice park that we would return to again. The staff was friendly and helpful and the park is well maintained. 50 amp service, and full hookups made it nice. The pool, fitness center and the spa area was nice and we enjoyed our 6 day stay.

Site A10 with 50 amps, water, and sewer and trees behind us was very nice. We enjoyed our stay here and would return. Lots to see and do in the area, you are only 20 miles or so from Bowling Green.

Allergy no more! I'm Loving Galveston!!

Overnight stop near Ennis, Tx at High View Park.

Galveston bound!! Stopped at High View Park near Ennis, a COE park that is only $16 for the night (1/2 price for seniors with the COE pass, we're not there yet but FYI for you that are) We wanted to stay at the Waxahachie Creek park but it was already closed for the season.

I've always loved Galveston but I now have reason to love it more! I have been plagued with horrible allergies since January in Las Vegas, then Canon City was no better and Lawton was even worse! To cough and cough and cough with no relief is miserable! Benedryl helped but made me "foggy" as the commercials say. Galveston must not have the trees, which seems to be Cedar and Cottonwood, that has caused my coughing! Yea!!
Bruce found a beautiful RV Park here - Sandpiper RV Resort - and boy is it nice! View of the Gulf, concrete sites with grass between them, pool, hot tub, I'm thinking it will be very hard to leave this place! And did I mention I wasn't coughing anymore? :-)  We haven't taken pictures of our site yet but will post some in the next day or so.
Took about an hour walk along the beach, I think I was a mermaid in my previous life. I'm so at peace here.





















We went to Miller's Seawall Grill to see if it was still as good as it was when we were here in 2008 - and it was! Our server, Leah, was very friendly and we questioned her about living on the island. Seems she came here after Katrina and just before Ike. She said that Miller's got about 3 feet of water inside the building but the owner was thrilled that the ceiling was not damaged. It has some beautiful woodwork on it.
We spent our 1st couple of days just chilling by the pool/hot tub and getting the rig cleaned up to rid the inside of the pollen. Did I mention my allergies are better? :-)

Amarillo, Texas - Oasis RV Resort

March 9, 2009
Another day of driving then stopped in Amarillo, TX at the Oasis RV Resort. It’s is a new park on the west outer edge of Amarillo. Nice but being new there are no trees or much else. They have a free laundry but didn't use it since we'll be back in Lawton tomorrow.  No pictures either - hard to remember when you've been driving/riding all day!

Bentsen Palm RV Resort - Mission, Texas

Bentsen Palm Village RV Resort  Mission, TX. We arrived on Nov. 1, 2008 

Bentsen Palm Village, Site 606

Bruce and Kathy at
Gladys Porter Zoo-Brownsville, Tx

Very nice resort, great weather, although quite a bit of wind (lost our awning our 1st week here at 1:45 am) Met some great people, Tom and Marianne Guinther from Grand Rapids, IL. They were staying at Retama Village which is next door to Bensen Palm. Retama is a beautiful resort that the sites are purchased, they are renting from the site owner. We had a lot of fun and did quite a bit of sight seeing with Tom and Marianne, one of the most memorable was to the Gladys Porter Zoo, in Brownsville, Texas. The Zoo is decorated for Christmas and with the mild weather in south Texas they had good number of people come.

There is a nice Texas State Park, Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley next to our park. The Bentsen Village park residents admission was free and it was a wonderful place to walk or ride bikes, and Bentsen Village even provided a bike if you didn't bring your own.  The Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park is a World Birding Center and even would see wild javelinas running around.  There is also many bike trails, some were right along the Rio Grande River and we saw clothing and a backpack along the bank. Reported it to the Border Patrol that was parked watching the road. There were butterflies everywhere, especially during November.  Some of the RV sites had bushes that weren't so pretty, found out that these are feeder bushes for the butterflies.

Bruce loved his morning workout in the gym. The laundry was next door to the gym so I would use the treadmill while waiting on clothes. This park had about everything you could ask for - just wish the area was as nice as the park!

A fruit truck vendor comes through the park every week and had some wonderful pineapples! So sweet and juicy and they even cut them for us. So much to do, if we got bored, it was our own fault!

Found the sign at Hobby Lobby and added our information on the back. While I was in the crafting mood, I made a pair of silver cross earring. Turned out pretty good, if I have to say so myself :-)

On Our Way to Las Vegas! Buckhorn Lake RV Resort - Kerrville, Texas

Buckhorn Lake RV Resort

Headed to Las Vegas! Stopped in the office at Bentsen Palm Village RV Resort to tell them bye, pay the electric and off we went. Uneventful trip, stopped a couple of times for gas/diesel ($2.29/gal). Arrived at Buckhorn Lake RV Resort, near Kerrville, Texas at 3:30, nice office/store area and the park is very nice ($38.70). After a walk around the resort and also a spin on the bike went to the hot tub. Wonderful!! Watched the sunset from the tub with my iPod playing Michael Buble. Can’t get much better then this!! Bruce watched the Superbowl while I surfed the internet looking at destination ideas.

Awwww, love that hot tub!

Balmorhea Texas State Park

Taking the day off from driving anywhere! We spent the day roaming around the park and relaxing and, of course, I took a nap. Bruce washed the RV, his idea of relaxing. Took a walk around the spring-fed pool and watched some divers that were taking a class. Went to the playground and had to try out the swing, Bruce even went down the slide! Watched a little TV and off the bed since there was no internet.