Weekend Getaway:
Driving map to the park
Friday: September 7th
It had been a long time since we had gone to Cleburne State Park. It is a very popular park and usually crowded. I called the park Friday morning and was able to reserve a full hook up site. We lucked out. During the day Friday while Cindy was at school, I ran a lot of errands, did a lot of washing, got the worms for fishing and got the Coach and the car ready to go.
As soon as Cindy got home we were ready to go. We left home around 4:30. We knew the traffic would be heavy and it was. The traffic was very heavy at I-20 and I-35W...a lot of construction. We got to the park around 5:30. We were assigned Site 44 which is next to the lake. Sites 45 and 46 are the best sites for access to the lake but were already taken. Site 44 is a nice site...a lot of space between camp sites. The weather was nice but a little warm and sticky.
We rolled out
the awning and hung the lights. Even though you can't see it...the US
flag is flying on the back of the Coach.
We took the car but we ended up not using it. This was the first trip since the engine overheated on our way to Shreveport in July. Every thing was fine on this trip, but we had the car in case.
Here is another picture of Site 44 on the street side of the coach.
On the top of the Coach is the white TV antenna. Friday night we didn't have reception of any channels. We watch a DVD movie "Perfect Strangers". Saturday we talked to a neighboring camper and mentioned the poor TV reception. He said he had great reception and suggested I check the TV antenna power booster. I found out the booster did not have 12v power to it. I rigged up a make shift jumper wire from the 12v power plug on the dash board...and it worked. We had good reception on all of the local channels. When we got home Sunday I ran a new wire to the booster and now it is fixed for our next trip. At the house I have good TV reception even with the antenna in the down stored position.
Saturday: September 8th
Saturday morning the campers next to us in Site 45 left around 12:00. We unloaded our fishing gear and fished from Site 45...a nice rocky edge at the water. No luck fishing. Around 2:30, new campers came in so we had to go back to our camp site. It was getting pretty warm so we went in for a while to cool off.
There was a small grassy approach to the lake next to our camp site...not good for fishing...but I decided to give the Fold Cat boat a try...it will be the first time in the water.
It took me
about 45 minutes to get it unloaded, inflated and assembled. I was excided
to finally get the boat in the water but it was hot...it was like a sauna.
Cindy helped me carry it to the water (about 75 feet). It took another
trip or two to get the trolling motor, battery and fishing gear to the
water.
The water was only about a foot deep at the back. We wore our plastic shoes that Cindy found at "Big Lots" and waded in the water to get in the boat. You can see our fishing poles in the four rod holders. We have oars in case the battery goes dead. You can see the trolling motor on the back...it worked great. We had plenty of battery juice so we didn't have to use the oars. The front seat that Cindy uses is turned to the left. The seat in the back which I use sets a little higher so I can see over her while we are moving. The seats swivel 360 degrees, which makes it nice fishing from both sides of the boat.
Here is another
picture, a little further from the boat but you can see the lake a little
better.
We went out in the boat and fished from about 4:30 to around 7:00. The far side of the lake is the west bank (the width of the lake). The west bank was shady so we stayed along that bank and kept moving up the lake. The lake is about three times longer than it is wide. We were fishing with worms (big worms)...not a single bite until our last stop...but we think it was turtles.
We had a good time on our first outing with the boat. The boat is very stable. We ware life jackets. It worked out very well.
While I packed up the boat and gear back in the Coach, Cindy fixed dinner. While she was fixing fajitas for dinner and piece of cooked onion fell on the floor and Mocha grabbed it and swallowed it. More on that story on Sunday.
Sunday: September 9th
Around 6:30, we could hear Mocha whining in her plastic crate where she sleeps. We thought she was just awake and wanted to get out of her crate like she usually does...not this time...she kept whining and whining. I got up to take her out and found out she had had an upset stomach during the night...we think now from the onion...and we had a real mess to clean up on her and her crate. I won't go into detail...but we had a mess...which took about an hour to get ever thing back in order. At least it was confined to her and the crate.