This is OK...

As in: Oklahoma.  That's how far we drove today.

On the license plates, you have "Great Places, Great Faces" (South Dakota); "The Lone Star State" (Texas); "The Greatest Snow On Earth" (Utah); "Eat Cheese Or Die" (Wisconsin); and Oklahoma has: "Oklahoma is OK."  Not "Oklahoma Is Great" nor "Go Big Red-Neck"... no, they're just... OK.

We undid utilities, hooked the car and cargo trailer behind the coach, and headed for the Interstate at Austin.  Before we got to the Interstate, the rain came...

It stayed with us off and on for the first 100 miles or so.  When it was time for a stop, so I could do a walk-around (to check the rig) and feed Rufus, while Joan made us some sandwiches, the sun was out...

Yes, we go into the "big boy" parking at a rest area.  We missed the worst of the Austin traffic because of where last night's RV park was located.  The driving was pretty darn easy and the sky turned friendly...

We didn't run into any significant traffic congestion until going through Fort Worth, and that was because of a lane closure...

No big deal, really.  On the other side of the Interstate, we saw the aftermath of a three car collision that had the Interstate backed up for over 5 miles.  Just north of that, it was time for a fuel stop, and Joan had looked ahead: yep, a Buc-ee's just north of Fort Worth.  No, we didn't go in, but the in and out there was easy for our length, and we were quickly back on the road.  From there north, it was easy cruising.

Crossing the border...

Just over the border is the Winstar Casino.  It is a massive casino that we have no intention of going into.  But, they have a very nice RV...

The sites are long and level, the grounds are immaculate, and the front desk people are friendly.  Adding to that: your first night is free if you sign up for a Players Card.  Even if you don't use the card.  Free is my favorite price, made even better by this very nice park.

It is still warm (90º), but early enough in the day that Joan took Rufus out for some patio time.  Well, a short outing because of the heat.  I may try again after the sun goes down.

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I went for a walk around the park.  This place really is very nice.  Currently less than half occupied...

If you aren't getting the free site, they are only $40 per night, and you may get an additional $10 off that with a Players Card.  As nice as the sites are, that is still better than the two "upscale" parks we have stayed at so far this trip.

This building is for their laundry and showers...

One of the street signs, since it is connected with a large casino...

Another look at our site...

And a bit of time outside with Rufus...

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A bit of good news from the home front...

At the board of directors meeting today, the board members apparently got the message from angry owners that we are fed up with people allowing kids to race golf carts on our streets.  Unlicensed kids.  Same with UTVs.  Same with allowing people who are not living or renting at our resort to just walk through the gate and use the facilities.  And, a bunch of other stuff.  As a start, management will be hiring an off-duty County Constable to patrol on weekend nights.  People breaking the rules will be fined.  They actually used the word "consequences", a word that I have used repeatedly in my many posts on our Concerned Owners forum.  It's a start.  Our security has essentially been ignoring the rule breaking because the management has given them no authority to fine offenders.  Owners are pissed.  On of the board members asked for my permission to forward several posts I made to the other board members... "Absolutely.  EVERY SINGLE BOARD MEMBER ran for that position by saying they want to make our village a better place, and letting renters trash the place is the opposite of that.  You need to do what you promised and do whatever is necessary to keep our village safe and friendly."  Assholes racing UTVs at 2:00am through our streets with music blaring needs to stop.  Now!  Before someone gets seriously hurt.  Dumbasses throwing trash in the parking lot because they are too lazy to use the dumpsters (and the new compactor).

We'll see how this new direction the board is taking plays out.  Some rental property owners are concerned that it will hurt their rental business.  I firmly stated that "You will get better renters who are more respectful and don't trash your property if our rules are enforced.

The shit-show that summer behavior on our island has become plays a part in why we decided to get out of there earlier.  I was glad to see the renters across the canal from us left a week or so before we headed out... the neighborhood was much quieter.  Not to mention the throngs of people they had in that two bedroom duplex... with a bunch of them coughing up a storm.  No distancing.  It wasn't pleasant.  And those assholes weren't chasing around with golf carts and UTVs.

I will be anxious to hear from owners who are there how this next weekend goes.

Stormy weather...

If you said, "Etta James, 1960," you get 300 bonus points.  If you said, "Lena Horne, 1942," you get 500 bonus points.  If you said, "The weather in Austin this morning," you are right, but no bonus points.

Yeah, a thunderstorm rolled through this morning, coinciding with the time we need to take the Vespa to AF1 Racing for its 12,000 mile service.  No, I am not riding in the rain intentionally, so we hauled it there in the cargo trailer.  An hour or so before we left, one particularly loud (and close) clap of thunder knocked our power out.  It came back on a few minutes later.  Another even louder (and closer) clap and the power went out and stayed out.

We can run much of the coach on 12 volt, so it wasn't that big of a deal.  The rain brought cooler temperatures, getting down to 71º so we didn't have to worry about Rufus roasting in the coach while we were gone.  I saw the manager getting into his truck across the street, so I asked if the power outage was just the park... "Nope. 40,000 people without power right now, and not expected to be back on until 2:30."

Well, that's fun.  We drove through the rain to AF1 - I was glad to see the lights in their shop were on when we got there.  We unloaded the Vespa close to their shop door (still raining), and I confirmed what I wanted done and signed the paperwork.  The guy I turned my scoot over to wasn't the same as the one who did the paperwork... he asked, "What are we doing with this?"

That inspires confidence.  Not.  "12,000 mile service.  I set up this appointment a month ago.  Called to confirm it one week ago.  I was told you will get on it first thing this morning and have it ready for me this afternoon."

"Oh, OK.  If that's what you were told."

On the bright side, the rain started letting up a bit on the way back to the coach (we left the cargo trailer in AF1's parking lot).  The power was on when we opened the door.  At 10:30.

I did one more flush and sanitize on our fresh water tank, and by the time I was half way into that, the rain had completely stopped.  The sun came out at blazing level, making it immediately hot and humid.  Nothing in between.

So now, we wait for the phone call.  If there wasn't a concern about exposure around other people, I probably would have kept myself entertained looking at bikes in their showroom.  Likely saved myself some money there.  ;-)

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A sigh of relief.  It isn't a secret that I haven't had the best luck getting service done.  It may be because I expect it to be done right... and efficiently.  I know what work I want done and how long it should take.  I don't want whatever I bring in for service to wind up disabled because they don't have the right parts in stock.  I don't want to hear, "It's gonna take a week to get that part in," because I told them more than a week ago what parts I'd need.  Now, granted, this happens to us most often with RVs.

This scooter service with AF1 Racing turned out to be as promised.  They had the necessary maintenance parts, they found two other things that were minor and needed to be addressed.  The time was a bit longer than I expected, but the cost was as expected; the mechanic and I went over things when he brought the scoot out.  He gave me a bag with the parts that were replaced; I appreciate that, so I can see how the scoot is holding up.  The mechanic was smart - he said, "That is a nice GTS - runs smooth and strong.  I have the same year, so I am very familiar with exactly what you have.  Looks like you take good care of it."

Yep, very smart.

After getting any kind of service done, I want to take the vehicle/vessel for a test run to make sure everything is running as it should be.  (I had an airplane that came out of annual once that made me think I was going to have to find a soft spot to put it, but got it back on the runway, landing with a tailwind.)  If you think a scooter is less of an issue if something is wrong, you haven't driven in Austin traffic!  Yes, the Vespa ran great.  To be fair, it was running just fine when I took it in.  I was glad to have another set of eyes give it a good once over.

It was back into the 90s, sunny, and humid when I took the scoot out.  Joan said, "You didn't bring long pants?"  Umm - no.

When I got back from my check ride, Joan had the trailer ramp door ready to load up.  I pulled the scoot into the trailer and we did our usual strap-down routine.  Back to the RV park.

This has been a 5 day trek of mostly "marching in place."  I needed to get out, so we spent a few extra nights in RV parks to cover less than 400 miles from home.  Tomorrow, we start our trek north in earnest.  I am hoping to find some cooler weather and I know there will be some great riding roads.  All three of us are ready.

Gettin In... Getting Out...

We are pretty much just marking time while here in Austin, waiting for my service appointment on the Vespa tomorrow morning.  We thought this might be a pleasant RV park to hang out, but Mother Nature as kept it on the warmish side.  I tried to take Rufus outside this afternoon, but there is a lawn crew mowing, and it is noisy.

We did some running this morning - a bit of recon for the route to AF1 Racing, then a stop at Total Wino.  Some call it "Total Wine," but we know the truth.  We stocked up.  Joan wanted to stop at HEB; we pulled up a reasonably close one, and as we got close, decided to take a pass.

Back to the coach, take care of Rufus for lunch, and then out again.  A nicer HEB and a stop for my belly...

Yes, there are some In-N-Out Burgers in Texas, but none in our home area.  One has to take advantage when the situation presents itself.  You can tell by that fries holder above, I made short work of it.  ;-)  In the past few months, we have only had one other burger out, and that was Burger Fi near us.  Yes, we ate in the car.  No, not while driving.  I pulled back into the near empty In-N-Out parking lot.  No inside service, yet.  Just as well... this county is a Texas hot spot for the virus.  Austin is a city with a relatively young population; they are discovering that this virus isn't just a "boomer remover."

I was a bit nostalgic eating in the car.  When Joan and I were dating in Sioux City, one of our favorite food stops was Tastee In & Out.  Drive up only, so eating in the car was your only option, unless you were going to drive to a park for a picnic.  Realistically, those Tastee Sandwiches were too irresistible to wait to get to a park.  ;-)  In-N-Out Burger is pretty high on my list, too.

Back to the RV park, the management here sent a kid out to look at the leaky hose bib at our site.  The kid tried to explain to me "how to use a faucet."  Interestingly enough, as he demonstrated that you "turn it to turn the water off" (moron), the leaking didn't stop.  He then explained to me that he is office staff not maintenance staff.  It shows.  I was a nice guy and removed our water and sewer connection so they could fix it.  Apparently, that isn't going to happen.  It doesn't prevent us from using those facilities, it is just a swampy mess around the power pedestal.  Their mess - I was trying to be a nice guy by letting them know.  If you talk to me like I'm stupid, you lose the right for me to be respectful.  This is a decent park, but I will take them off our list.

Tiny home village...

Tiny homes are trendy.  If you watch any of the home & garden type channels, you have seen shows about these.  It started as a build-it-yourself movement, and has grown into commercial ventures.  The fact is: park homes have been around for several decades.  These are built to RV standards, with interior square footage of 400 sq ft or less.  There are scads of them all over the sunbelt.  Often, an additional room is built onto them once they are set in place.  We see them all around our island and where we stay in Arizona when we go to visit Steph and Dan.

The RV park where we are currently (I have an appointment at the Vespa dealer tomorrow for service) has a section for "tiny homes," and as I mentioned yesterday, bills itself as "Austin's first tiny home village."  Here are photos from a walk around last night...

These are all commercially built.  Most have a cute little front porch, some with a two-person seating area.  It is very apparent that none of these are made to move around, like an RV.

So, what is the appeal?  They are small and efficient.  Very little upkeep with nice siding on them like those pictured.  Certainly less $$ than a typical small home.  You might be surprised by how expensive they can run, though.  Some people like the idea that their home is using less resources, both in the construction and day-to-day living.  In a park like this, there is the monthly lot rent, which may be in the $500 to $600 a month, plus electricity.  For that, you get resort-style amenities; a swimming pool, a clubhouse, cable TV.  What you lose: no garage, not much of a yard, not a lot of storage space.  You are certainly close to your neighbors.

Can you live in 400 square feet?  Well, we have done that successfully for months at a time in our RVs or onboard a boat.  Lots of people live in park homes.  Across the sunbelt, there are all kinds of parks and resorts that are more park homes than RVs.  If you had a lot on a lake, and zoning allowed it, how nice would that be to plop one of these on it, connect the utilities, and welcome home.

Will we be doing it any time soon?  No.  At 850 square feet, our house is small.  I don't see where we'd be content with anything smaller at this time, even though we do go out for several months at a time in the motorhome. 

This is a solution for some people.  An alternative to being in an apartment, with others living on all four sides of you.  Plus, these are cool... and in Austin, cool counts.

The rest of this park is for RVs.  I posted photos of our site yesterday.  We are in what looks to be the first built part of this park.  The sites have plenty of length for big rigs (or our smaller rig, long over-all length), with nice grassy area between, but the paved portion is pretty narrow...

In the newer section, near where the tiny homes are, the RV sites have more paved width...

There would be room to park your vehicle alongside the RV, instead of in front or behind.  That would be better for us, since we could put the trailer in so it is easy to get the scoots out. 

No matter, we are only here for 3 nights, not the whole summer.

That was easy...

My part in being a Father?  Well, I didn't have to do the whole childbirth thing, so there is that.  ;-)

Today's drive was only 100 miles or so.  Of course, it was the corridor between San Antonio and Austin, so that means a shit-ton of traffic.  What?  Shit-ton?  That means: a lot.  For fun, there was construction almost the entire way.  This is the fastest growing area in the US, and I guess the road infrastructure is always trying to keep up with the increasing population.  There was road construction here 24 years ago when we were driving between South Dakota and south Texas... it appears to be never-ending.

We fueled up right before we pulled into the last place.  Too bad for me, 'cause I didn't get to stop here...

I like Buc-ee's, but no desire to go in there and shop... or just go look at all the shiny, clean urinals.  Nope.  No shopping for 50 different kinds of jerky or 100 kinds of hard candy.  We didn't need gas, so no stopping at one of the 100 or so fuel pumps.  Not in the age of the Corona Virus.

We pressed on.  The traffic continued to thicken, along with the construction...

The last two miles before bailing off the Interstate was stop and go.  You can see all the construction along the right side, making for skinny lanes and exits that are changing and not well-marked.  So, that was fun.  Joan routed us different from either of the GPS units, and it worked out fine... once off the Interstate, the traffic was only moderately heavy, not bumper-to-bumper, stop-and-go.

She guided us right to the RV park, even though their huge sign was not visible from the direction we approached.  We pulled in, parked in registration parking, and I went to the office door, where our packet was waiting in a box.  Easy enough to find our site.

This is an upscale RV Park, so we probably won't have scenes from "Cops" like we did Friday night.  This place also bills itself as "Austin's only tiny home community."  Very trendy.  Just what you'd expect with Austin.  I may walk through that area just to look around, later.  It was 96º and blazing sun while we got set up in our site...

The RV sites here are long, so they can easily accommodate our length.  Unfortunately, the utilities are right in the middle of the site, so we had to do some maneuvering to make it work.  We will need to get the scoots out to take mine for service on Tuesday, and Joan will do some grocery shopping tomorrow, so she'll need the car.  That means we need access to the back of the cargo trailer and be able to take just the car.  So, that meant: unhooking the car from the coach, pulling the trailer around to the front of the site, backing that in where we can still get the gate down, unhooking the trailer, then pulling the car around to the back of the site again.  It just takes a little extra time to get it all "staged" so each unit can be used.

We planned this place around getting the Vespa serviced.  The Vespa shop isn't open on Mondays, and we didn't want to spend another weekend at home... so, out on Friday and a few extra nights in the San Antonio/Austin area.  You gotta be somewhere, and this is as good as anywhere.  Sometimes we look for an RV park that is inexpensive and easy-on/easy-off the road.  Sometimes the location is the most important criteria.  This is one of the closest RV parks to AF1 Racing (the Vespa shop).

If it wasn't so blazing hot out, it would be nice to sit under the awning and enjoy the outdoors.  Not now.  If the virus wasn't "out there," it would be enjoyable to spend some time at the pool.  Not now.

So, we are enjoying the air conditioning in the coach and watching "Dads," from Apple TV+.  So, I guess I'm not the only good Dad out there.  :-)

Happy Fathers Day...

It is early here in the Alamo City.  Rufus did not jump on me to get me up to feed him; instead, he snuggled up sweetly.  Then did the same with Joan.  He's a good boy.  Joan wished me a "Happy Fathers Day" as I got up... I couldn't be the Dad I am without her.

Far away, our sweet daughter is still in bed, as she should be.  I know when she gets up I will hear from her and get to open some cards.  In the meantime, while starting my morning routine, I got to think about what being a Dad means to me: best job ever!  A job?  Well, it takes effort to raise a good kid, but this is truly a labor of love.  You teach, you encourage, you set guidelines... all with the trust that what you are doing will result in a good person.  Stephanie is a good person, and we couldn't be more proud of her.  While some of that is inherent goodness, it takes involved parenting, as well.  No doubt, in her teen years, Steph may have believed I was a bit too involved.  :-)

Though we live many miles apart, we visit often; we go there, they come to see us.  But a lot of our contact is by phone or trading cat photos by text.  It is sometimes a competition to see who has the cutest cat(s)... and being a good Dad, I let her think she is winning.  ;-)

While the adoring will begin soon, this will also be an easy travel day for us: 100 miles or so, to position us closer to the Vespa dealer who will be doing service on my scoot.  Thus, the reason why we are lingering in this area.  I'm looking forward to some good riding soon.

Got to go - my kid is on the phone!

Happy Fathers Day!

Planning...

We have discussed routing and places to stay during our trek north.  Primary discussion has been Interstates vs back roads... we've done it both ways.  From my perspective, while double towing, I have less concern about traffic building up behind us while on the Interstate.  Especially in Texas, two lane roads often have 70 or 75 mph speed limits, and I keep it around 65 mph with our rig... I don't want to be "that guy" that holds up drivers who are already doing 10 mph over the speed limit.

The back roads generally avoid big cities (Austin, Dallas, Ft Worth, Oklahoma City, Wichita) between us and Hart Ranch.  Fuel stops can be a challenge.  Road construction may delay you, where the Interstate may have one lane closed, but they are rarely shut down, making for a detour.  The views can be more interesting.  Since we are driving 65 mph at most, there isn't a time advantage of the Interstate vs back roads.

There are various websites we use to check out RV parks along our route - you can get current reviews, site information, price, and have some idea of what to expect.

Since it is a hot day here in San Antonio, we got out around noon for a stop at my favorite shoe place (SAS)...

They make a variety of shoes right there in their factory, but the big selling point for me: the most comfortable shoes I've ever worn and in sizes to fit the widely-footed.  From there, we stopped at a Chick-fil-A... there isn't a single Chick-fil-A in the state of South Dakota, so we have to get it in while we can; and get some extra chicken bites for the road.  Looks like we have 100 miles to do tomorrow.  ;-)

The drive-up at Chick-fil-A had about 4,000 cars ahead of us (that may be a slight exaggeration), but the line moved fast and the people taking orders were efficient.  Seriously, a pleasant experience; well, as pleasant as drive-up food can be.  If the government wants to do drive-up testing for the Covid-19 virus, they should have it administered by Chick-fil-A.  These folks know how to do it, and they tell you, "My pleasure," instead of "No problem."  👍

Before coming back to our site, we stopped at Tom's Burgers.  The guy who escorted us to our site yesterday told me, "Tom's has the best chocolate malts around!"  Apparently he could tell from my svelte physique that I am an ice cream kinda guy.  I can tell you, unequivocally: he was right.

Back at the coach, I considered taking Rufus out for a walk, but at 96º I had concerns for his paws on the concrete at our site.  Instead, he and I took a nap while Joan surfed.  The internet, not on any gnarly waves, dude.

I determined nap time was done, when Rufus jumped on me and said, "Nap time is done!  Time to feed Rufus!"  I had to wait a bit to feed him: it is important to not reward jumping on me behavior.

So, at 6:30, the temperature was down from 96º to 95º.  We may put off that walk.