Texas – Family, Friends and BBQ

Leg 5 – Texas, San Antonio & Frisco 10/13/2021 – 10/19/2021

This leg of the journey is affectionately known as the Family, Friends and Texas BBQ leg. Is it a coincidence that the motto of Texas is Friendship? We have quite a few family members in Texas and a couple of friends that recently moved here. It’s been a while since we have seen any of them. This was another detour from our original itinerary. One of the great things of the Full-Time RV lifestyle is you can almost always work changes into your planned routes.

We decided to make the 8 hour drive to San Antonio in one day. It would be a lonnnnnnnng day of driving for Bill. I thought I might offer to do some of the driving today since we were going to be back on the freeway and Texas is pretty much flat. There are a few hills here and there, but no big mountains to climb. We took US-285 South out of Carlsbad and picked up I-10 in Fort Stockton. Our journey took us through some of the oil patches in West Texas which was really cool to see. The work in these oil-fields created small little makeshift “towns” in the middle of nowhere. Modular buildings housed offices, grocery stores, restaurants and RV sites were all over. As soon as we got on the interstate and headed east we were faced with what I consider high winds. Bill was certainly having to fight the wind to keep the coach in its lane. My thoughts of driving today are squashed, darn. LOL

San Antonio, TX

We arrived in San Antonio right at quittin’ time and had to deal with rush hour traffic. Our GPS routed us in a direction that made absolutely no sense, however, we did not know this at the time. We blindly trusted that the RV/Trucker GPS knew the right way. Never again. After being routed thru three different freeways, we were then told to get off on an exit that no longer existed. How is this??? Have you ever been in rush hour traffic in an unfamiliar area, driving a 40’ bus, pulling a jeep and no directions? It’s just a tiny bit stressful. I got out my cell phone, used google maps and was able to re-route us to the KOA. We just tried to stay where the 18-wheelers were because we knew we would be pretty safe from obstacles that we wouldn’t be able to navigate. We arrived safely at the KOA just before dark. My angel was watching out for us again.

TIP: Always check your GPS navigation with Google Maps or Google Earth or another current map source to be sure the calculated route is the absolute best route. My son, who drives a semi, even told us he always double checks his routes prior to driving. If I had followed the route the GPS laid out before we took off, I would have seen that the exit from I-35 no longer existed even though our software was recently updated.

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We spent 3 days in San Antonio and were able to visit some friends who formerly RV’d full time and recently moved to the area. My brother and his fiancé also have lived here for over 9 years. It has been several years since we have seen either of them. Texas Roadhouse was on the menu and we were able to catch up with our friends Jack & Ann. We enjoyed a Cadillac margarita (or 2) and tender, juicy steaks. I’m so happy it wasn’t Mexican food. HAHA.

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On the way back to the KOA a storm moved in. Several family members warned us to watch the weather and be aware of flash floods. Okay… One side of the KOA borders a small creek that had to be about 200’ away from our camp site. We went to bed and all was well. When we woke up, the water was up to the road! I guess they weren’t kidding about flooding. The staff of the KOA kept a close eye on the water levels and were prepared to relocate everyone if needed. Thankfully, it did not come to that and the water receded pretty quickly. By the next morning, the water was back down to it’s normal level.

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I was able to spend the next 2 evenings with my little brother and it was so nice to visit with him. We had pizza and watched the Bucs play New England on Thursday night and Friday he grilled some awesome cheeseburgers. We reminisced about our school days in our little hometown. We even pulled up the radio station we used to listen to as kids on iHeart Radio. They still play all the stuff we listened to “back in the day”. It was a GREAT visit!

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Buc-Eee’s and BBQ

Time to move north a few hours and visit some family that live in the Dallas area. However, we needed to make two pit stops on the way. Stop one, BUC-EE’S! Bill had never seen a Buc-ee’s before. We pulled into the one in New Braunfels. I think he was a little surprised at the magnitude of the store and all the gas pumps. After a little research, I found out that the New Braunfels Buc-ee’s currently holds the world record for largest convenience store at 66,335 square feet! If you can’t find what you need here, chances are you don’t need it. We picked up our new windshield mascot and re-named him Theo.

Stop two, Alvarado, TX. Some friends of ours recently moved from Oregon to Cleburne. By recently, I mean just days prior. I believe they had only been in their house 4 or 5 days by the time we drove thru the area. They met us in Alvarado for some BBQ at Massey’s. We ordered the brisket, pulled pork and for whatever reason the bologna looked good to me too. Surprisingly, it was very tasty. If you are ever on I-35W, going thru Alvarado and looking for a good place to eat, Massey’s would be your place. They do not have a website but here is a trip-advisor link to other reviews (all 5 stars). We caught up with our friends, Russ and Robin, and are so excited for their new life in Texas.

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Frisco, TX

We finally reached our campground, Hidden Cove Park and Marina on Lewisville Lake in Frisco. Highly recommend. The campground was lovely. All the campsites were spacious with trees, nice soft green grass and lots of woods. It felt almost like being in a state park. We had a fairly large site with a peek of the lake thru some shrubs. Kona was so happy to finally have some grass to lay on. As soon as she got out of the coach, she plopped down and started to roll around in it. She was a very a happy pup. It was time to relax. The drive thru Ft. Worth was packed with traffic zooming by and very tight construction zones that seemed to go on forever.

Sunday was spent with Bill’s aunt, uncle and cousins out in Wylie, TX. On the menu? Texas Brisket, baked beans and potato salad. It was all mouth-watering delicious. BONUS, we got a doggie bag to take home with us! Thanks so much!!! We had a real nice time visiting on the back porch and enjoying the nice cool fall day. Once all the food was put away and everyone was in a somewhat comatose state, we watched a little football. Great times!!

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On the way back to the coach, we stopped in to see another cousin of Bill’s; Jean and her husband, Matt. We enjoyed a cool evening on their back porch with some drinks and lots of chatting. Aren’t back porches great? I can’t remember if it was during this conversation or the one over breakfast, but Jean told us about pizookie. What the heck is pizookie? It is a pizza cookie prepared and served warm in an iron skillet with ice cream. You had me at pizza and cookie, 2 of my favorite foods! Of course we have to try and make this and make it we did. Click here to see the results. Jean, I don’t know whether to thank you or curse you for introducing us to the pizookie! My taste buds thank you, my waistline is cursing you. LOL

Monday it was back to work for some of us (not me). The rest of us (Jean and myself) pampered ourselves and did some shopping. Jean hooked me up for a much needed pedicure and then we did a little shopping. Once the boys were done with their work day, we headed down to The Star. The Star is the 91-acre complex where the Dallas Cowboys train and their WHQ are located. There are several restaurants, a Ring of Honor walk honoring 22 members of the football club, a 50-yard replica field and Ford Center. Very cool place to check out. We enjoyed another delicious meal and some Mambo Taxi Margaritas. (sadly, no pictures of dinner were taken) After dinner we needed to walk off the margaritas, so we meandered around The Star Complex. It was pretty awesome walking across the field with the huge jumbotron broadcasting the Monday Night Football game above. I can only imagine what it would feel like on a full-size field in a stadium that seats 80,000.

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Our last day in Texas was spent working and doing chores around the coach. Yes, I still have chores; paying bills, cleaning, laundry… After the work day was done, we met up with Jean for some awesome pizza and then headed off to see her daughter play a lacrosse scrimmage game. Bill and I knew nothing about lacrosse but enjoyed the game. Those girls mean business!

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Texas was all about visiting with our friends and families. We did absolutely no sightseeing and were completely okay with that. Thanks again to everyone for your wonderful hospitality! We hope to see you all again soon!