Vivian's RV Vignettes

Well, here I am resuming my blog (and my travels) after an almost ten-month hiatus. I didn’t mean for last year’s entries to end so abruptly, and I didn’t even realize how much I had left unwritten about the unexpected end of last year’s journey. I had an extremely stressful month between when I wrote about Mammoth Cave in early July and when I returned to Texas in August. During that time I visited my current school Johnson University, my undergrad alma mater Asbury University, and Isle Royale National Park in Michigan. I also did some marathon grant-writing sessions to meet deadlines for clients that forced me to revamp my travel plans. And then, as I was trying to get up to Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota, I encountered a Series of Unfortunate Events that sent me limping home. I was too stressed out to write about it at the time, and afterwards didn’t have the heart to go back and catch this blog up, but suffice it to say that my 20-year-old RV literally started falling apart and leaving chunks of itself on the highway. It wasn’t roadworthy or really even weatherproof and I couldn’t just ignore the problems and keep going.

So I made it back to Texas in the middle of the most brutal heat wave the area has seen in years (with a stop at Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas along the way). Maybe sometime I’ll go back and write about my visits to Isle Royale and Hot Springs, along with the gory details of my RV’s slow disintegration. But for now, suffice it to say that I made it home safely, and parked for the autumn/ winter/ spring in a nice covered site on private land in Magnolia, Texas. It’s a great “home” spot for me because it’s reasonably close to family and not ridiculously far from my church, so I’m planning to come back to it next fall after my current travels. I was able to reclaim my cat Peter from my sister Margaret who had generously been keeping him for me, and he adapted nicely to stationary RV life. In February, I donated Bruce the RV to a charity that turns old RVs into homes for homeless veterans, and I bought Penelope the RV as my new home.

I stayed in Magnolia until April, then turned Peter back over to Margaret and started on the road again with some local “shakedown” trips to the Thousand Trails campgrounds in Medina Lake, Columbus, and Conroe. I enjoy those campgrounds, but unfortunately I didn’t get to do a whole lot in the way of outdoor activities because of the crazy weather we’ve been having (flooding, tornadoes, derecho… as I commented on Facebook, we seem to have bought a hurricane on the installment plan).

But now the sun is shining, summer is setting in in earnest, and I’ve ventured to a new place… down to Galveston Island State Park. I’ve never camped here before, and in fact the beachside campground just reopened not long ago after it was destroyed by Hurricane Harvey in 2017. I arrived right as the sun was slipping below the horizon, but I’m already in love with the park.

“After securing accommodations… the next thing to be done was unquestionably to walk directly down to the sea. …The party from Uppercross passing down by the now deserted and melancholy looking rooms, and still descending, soon found themselves on the sea-shore; and lingering only, as all must linger and gaze on a first return to the sea, who ever deserved to look on it at all, proceeded towards the Cobb…”

~ Persuasion by Jane Austen

With Jane Austen’s wisdom in mind, I went down to the beach to stick my feet in the water immediately even though it meant doing some of my camp setup chores by moonlight/ flashlight.

My campsite is within sight and sound of the sea, but separated from the actual beach by a saltgrass marsh with a paved pathway across it. On my way back, I spotted an inhabitant who commanded my full attention.

I spotted the rattlesnake in plenty of time to keep a respectful distance. He didn’t seem eager to move in any particular direction, so I asked in a friendly tone if he minded if I went by. He still wasn’t inclined to turn the path over to me completely, but he stuck his head deep in the grass, and I warily took that as permission to pass by on the far side. A little further on, I passed a crab scuttling towards the water. Looks like the wildlife here will keep me on my toes!

I’ve got this spot until Friday morning, and then I’m going back up to Magnolia for a week before setting out on my travels in earnest. I’ve curtailed my ambitions… I realized last year’s goal of visiting all the rest of the national parks in a year was never going to be realistic even if my RV hadn’t gone to pieces. But I do have a good list to take in this year. I will try to keep this blog up to date for those who want to join me on my journey. 🙂