Lake Medina - Texas Boomers

Wow, what a weekend.  Winding twisting road to get to Lake Medina RV Resort, but well worth it.  Park in on a finger into Lake Medina, so you have water on 3 sides.  Early morning or late afternoon, deer roam around in the park. 

 Trailer pads are gravel, some grass.  The only negative are the abundance of grass burrs.  We had a nice view of the lake from our site.  Lake access is limited.  Lake is over 25' low at the current time.  I was told it is much better now than last year.

We drove around with Raymond and Annette to below the dam and found the river.  Looks great.

  

 

We had a great time and as usual, ate too much.  We still think we are an eating group that likes to RV together.  We had pot luck dinner Friday night, pot luck breakfast Saturday morning, pot luck left overs Saturday lunch and pot luck dinner Saturday night.  All the food was great as usual.  Spent a lot of time out under the breeze way talking.  It was very plesant in the shade with the wind blowing.  Spent some time both Friday and Saturday in the pool.

 We sat around the campfire Saturday and enjoyed visiting.  It was a small fire due to temperature, but hey, we were camping!  Full Moon came up over the hills a little after 9 PM.  At that point, I was wishing I was out on the lake in our sailboat.  Almost nothing better than a full moon, good breeze and on the lake sailing.  Oh well, campfires on moonless nights are the best, we just had our weekends switched. 

 We all talked about our upcoming trip to Williams AZ to the National Rally.  Going to be mostly a Texas rally in AZ.  More than 1/2 the rigs coming are from Texas.

Work on the Avion

Today was a long day.  Yesterday I had removed all the ceiling part of the front AC unit and removed the mounting bolts.  We had decided to go ahead and replace the front unit since it was over 20 years old and the new unit was so much colder.  Had friends come over to my shop today, I had borrowed a sissor lift, so the job of setting the old unit off and the new unit on was not bad.  The hard park was cleaning all the caulk and sealer that had been put around it.  It is on now and working great.  Just need to finish the trim on the inside and install the filters.

While I had the sissor lift, with much difficulty, we removed the big awning.  Someone had caulked it into the track, so it was quite a chore to remove.  We put the awning on my flat bed trailer and off to the Tarp Shop out in Brookshire to see if they would be able to reseam it for me.  Not only could they do the job, but did it while I waited for only $20.  Went by my friends place and told him how lucky I was and he said let's go put it back on.  We went back to my shop and put the awning together and cleaned all the caulk off the runner.  Awing slid back in with no problem.  We left about 6PM with the awning just hanging from the rail.  I'll put the arms back on tomorrow and retension the spring. 

My old shop is made of tin.  Rusty tin.  No insulation.  It gets hot in there.  Working on a ladder or the roof of the Avion, you really feel the heat.  Resting now, getting ready for tomorrow and another day of working on the Avion.  Sure glad we like her like we do.  Great to have friends that will spend a day helping in my hot shop. 

Friday Night Date

Ellen and I arrived at Seven Coves Marina on Lake Conroe a little after 5PM.  After doing a few things to the boat, we put on our small head sail, cast off and headed for the lake.  Just outside the breakwater, we hoisted the jib and cut the outboard.  We were under sail - peace and quite.  Winds were in the 15-20 mph range.  We sailed all the way across the lake, tacked and sailed by up and across the lake.  Tacked again and sailed up by the dam to near Hwy 105.  There are several restraunts up there that docks to tie up.  We thought that next time we would come up earlier and eat as well as sail.

We tacked and headed back to the marina.  By not putting up a lot of sail, we had a very peaceful sail with a lot of time to talk without any distractions.  Got the boat put away and headed for home around 8:15PM. 

We were almost at home when Michael called and wanted to know where we were.  He feels the need to check up on us.  We are out on our date having a good time and he was sitting at home like an old man.  Life is good.

Race Weekend

Thanks to our friends, Raymond and Annette, Michael and I had tickets to the races at Texas Motor Speedway last Friday and Saturday nights.  We got off to a late start Friday, as we could not leave until Michael got out of school at 12:40.  I had taken him to school Friday morning so that we could leave directly from school.  We went up I45 to US287 heading to our property in Sunset, TX.  We made great time until we hit Fort Worth right at 5:00.  I think their traffic is worse than Houston.  We got to Sunset and made our way out to Silver Lakes Ranch, a planned community where we own a 5 acre lot.

 We got the trailer set up, walked Bonnie & Jess and fed them and got away from the trailer by 7:30.  We have a great community pool w/pool house, restrooms & showers, meeting room and RV campground (water and 30 & 50 amp electric, no sewer) for property owners to use at no cost (other than our POA dues).

 In the rush to leave for the track I forgot the camera on Friday night.  We got to the track during the caution they had at lap 20.  We had great seats and could see all around the track.  Raymond had loaned me his scanner so that I could listen in on the racers and broadcast.  Really good race with lots of passing and side by side racing.  After the race we got out of the track quickly in thanks to the VIP parking pass that came with the tickets.  We stopped in Decatur on the way back to the trailer to fuel up.  Had to wait in line, seemed like everyone was at the station with diesel. 

Saturday morning we slept in.  I was up before Michael.  I sat outside under the shade tree and drank a Coke while the dogs wandered around exploring and taking care of business.  Michael got up around 10:30 and came out and sat and talked a while.  I tried several times to call Ellen's Mom who lives in Sunset, but got no answer.  Turns out I had transposed her number when I entered it in my cell phone.  So, we drove over to her home and talked for a while before heading off to IHOP for a late breakfast and coffee.  Since she had not seen the Avion or Jess, we took her back out to the trailer for a while.  After we took her home, Michael and I went to the pool for a while and cooled down before heading back to Fort Worth to the race.

We arrived back at the track and walked the souvenir midway.  Lots of neat shirts and things, but we resisted the urge to buy.  Got to our seats in time for the prayer, singing of the National Anthem and the fly over of 4 A10 Warthogs while the cars were lined up on the track.  And then there was the start of the race.

 There were several cars into the wall off turn 2 during the race.  The scary one was when one of the lady drivers hit the wall hard and the car caught fire.  Car scraped the wall all the way down the back straight and through turn 3.  It came to rest on the apron between 3&4 and burned big time.  All the time everyone in the stands was wondering why no fire retartant was being applied and the driver still in the car.  Turns out the first truck there, the fire hose would not work.  Anyway, the safety workers got the gal out of the car.  She had minor burns on right arm and had some minor burns also.  Very scary time and seemed to take forever to get her out of the burning car. Late on there was a wreck on front straight when 2 cars got together. 

 And then we had the winner doing his burn out.

We had a great weekend.  Truck race was good and fun to watch.  But, the Indy cars are something else.  They do a lap around the 1 1/2 mile track at an average of 212 mph or greater.  They run the track flat out, with the throttle on the floor.  To average 212 around the track, they were coming by us near the end of the front straight at over 225 mph.  Lots of wheel to wheel and passing in the race.  Danica Patrick drove her heart out and finished 2nd after leading the race some. 

We once again stopped and topped off with fuel for the trip home so we would not have to do so with the trailer behind us.  There was a Braum's across the street and I had to stop and eat Ellen favorite - Braum's chocolate almond double dip ice cream cone.  I could not believe how much the guy piled on the cone.  Michael changed his butter pecan order to a single dip after seeing mine.  We got and ate breakfast Sunday morning, hooked up, put things away for the trip home.  I went to pool to take a shower and we headed home.  Made it with no problems.  Next trip - Boomer Rally at Lake Medina.

Trailer Maintance

On the way home from the Boomer Rally on Monday, I tried out my new laser temp gun.  I had long told myself that I needed to repack the wheel bearings on the trailer, even though there was a receipt in the file we got with the trailer showing they had been serviced a little more than a year before we bought the trailer.

I shot the 2 front wheels on the Excursion and they were in the mid 120's.  I shot the 6 wheels on the trailer and they were all in the 120's except for one which was high 140's. 

Needless to say that is the first wheel I tore down today and sure enough, the outside bearing was pitted and going bad.  Checking them all and repacking.  Do not want to be forced into doing this job on the side of the road.

Boomer Memorial Day Rally

We went over last Friday to Miller Creek RV Resort for the Boomer rally expecting a great event and we were not disappointed.  Miller Creek is at the intersection of highway 290 & 281.  Really nice park, but lacking a swimming pool.  Ellen said she would not go back when it is so hot with no pool.  Here is a picture of the pond next to the office.

For those of you who do not know, this is an eating club that enjoys RVs.  Pot luck dinners and breakfasts were on the schedule.  Very well attended and saw lots of friends.  Michael drove over on Saturday morning and joined us for the weekend.  I think he was wanting to spend time with Ellen, since it had been a month since she had been home.  Ellen, Annette and Michael went over to Pedernales Falls State Park and spent Saturday afternoon in the water cooling off.  Raymond and I spend a lot of time watching races Saturday and Sunday.  Raymond and I grilled chicken and pork chops Saturday late and we all sat out at picnic table to eat a great meal with all the sides Ellen and Annette had prepared..  After a pot luck breakfast Monday morning, we prepared the trailer for travel and headed home. 

The highlight was being handed tickets to the NASCAR truck race and Indy car race at Texas Motor Speedway w/VIP parking pass for this coming weekend.  Michael and I are excited for the opportunity to see the races live.  Thank you Raymond and Annette!!!!

Overall a great weekend, just needs a pool to be a great place to go.