guadalupe river state park – Own Less. Do More.

Before I start this post for real, allow me to show, for the idly curious among you, how our big blue crap hauler uh, hauls the crap. It gets a ride to the dump station! Three tanks (one black, two gray) means three trips, and we do this only when we stay longer than a week in a location that does not have an on-site sewer hookup.

I know it looks kind of petite for hauling with the BFT. Tim can, and has, pulled it himself, but at this park, the dump station is almost a mile away, and that’s a long way to schlep 42 gallons of anything — times three — by hand. (1 gallon of water = 8.34 pounds, so that tank weighs nearly 350 pounds when full.)

And now the real post:

In yet another case of project creep, replacing the landing gear switch to fix whatever-the-hell-was-wrong with the coach battery (details here) has turned into replacing pretty much everything having to do with the landing gear, and upgrading it to a dual switch operating system instead of single switch.

After multiple discussions with both the original manufacturer, and several local RV repair shops, Tim ended up ordering all the required materials from Texas RV Supply, which definitely received the largest slice of the paycheck pie this month. Whee. But at least we’re not paying for labor: Tim works for the satisfaction of it, and for regularly spaced transfusions of cold root beer or lemonade.

Anyway, he set out to get the job done on Friday morning, only to find that the new legs were the wrong. damn. size.

Not these legs. The metal ones, resting there on top of the stacks of yellow leveling blocks. — Not *those* legs. Those legs are fine.
It’s the metal ones, resting there on top of the stacks of yellow leveling blocks.

Sigh. Project suspended. New parts are due to arrive Monday afternoon, but on Tuesday, we’re rolling east for the 5-day Houston RV Show, and its seminars, gimme caps, people watching, and a special appearance on Saturday by — wait for it — Yogi Bear.

I know.

The question is, will Yogi’s presence be enough to distract us from what will no doubt manifest as raging cases of RV Envy? There’ll be “600 sparkling brand new recreational vehicles in the climate controlled comfort of one of the nation’s top entertainment venues” — and I’m guessing not one of them has broken front landing gear.

Maybe we’d better leave the credit cards at home.

Not my best effort. About ten steps into the planned “We’re doing all the trails north of the river!” hike, I knew I didn’t have it in me after all.

We started up there in the parking area on the left, and managed to complete the entire Bamberger Trail, Golden-cheeked Warbler Trail, Little Bluestem Loop, and part of the Bauer Trail, for a total of about 5.5 miles. Another day, Hofheinz Trail. Another day.

I tried everything I knew to try. I drank more water, I ate my trail mix, I rested, I slowed my pace. I even tried to pep-talk myself out of it. “Come on, Emily. On this day 21 years ago, you gave birth to your first baby after 36 hours of labor. Now that was an endurance test. This is nothing. Wimp.”

Nope. Butt dragged the entire time. I’m blaming the fact that we haven’t hiked in Texas sun and heat like this (86 degrees today, and not a cloud in the sky) for several months, and haven’t hiked at all in weeks.

But I got pictures of a bird carcass and a cute little frog, and it turns out that if you hike for an hour, you get to a part of the river where there are no other humans. Worth it.