Hung up in Texas

May 4, 2015

It's been almost a month since the last blog.

We spent April 8 and 9th at Fort Stockton, TX.  Our intent was to spend a week there, but once we arrived we realized that there wouldn't be a week's worth of things to explore there, so we decided to move on to our next destination.



The Alamo

April 10 through 21 we spent at a place called Hidden Valley about 6 miles southwest of San Antonio.  All I can say about the park is "hmmm".  The 1/4 mile road to get to the park was sandy dirt that was horrendously rutted.  On our arrival with Big Mama Gypsy, we could travel no more than 2 miles an hour so we wouldn't dislodge everything inside our moving home.  The place wasn't worth posting a picture.



Mission Conception

Overall, San Antonio is a nice city, albeit big.  We did visit the Alamo, which yours truly didn't realize was right in the middle of the city.  We also visited the other 4 mission in the area and found them very educational. 

We also took the river walk boat tour in the heart of the city and it was well worth it because our driver told us the significant history behind many of the buildings. 

Mike on the River Boad

The hardest part of our stay was all the rain.  We were constantly tromping mud and dirt into the motor home and there were days that we didn't travel out at all due to downpours. We, well actually Mike, saw his first coral snake.  Yikes!  We realized we would need to keep Bear on a tight leash to avoid any encounters.  The cactus blooms were pretty incredible though.



Prickly Pear Cactus in Bloom

We arrived at Livingston, TX on April 22nd.  Our intent in being here is to establish our Texas residency.  After we moved our care and motor home insurance to Texas, we were able to get our titles and registrations transferred.

We did find a little hitch.  When we went to read the digital odometer (don't' ask why we hadn't done this before now) we found it hadn't changed since we purchased the vehicle from Camping World back in October of 2013.  Rut roh.  After we finish things here in Livingston, we'll need to head to Beaumont, TX to have Freightliner hook a computer up to see what the actual mileage is.  We bought the big rig based on the 42,000 miles it had on it so we may have some more "communicating" to do with Camping World if the number is vastly off.   I'll keep you posted.

So the next thing we needed to do was get our driver's license.  We headed  to the DMV last Thursday, April 30th.  Our rig s over 26,000 lbs. so we knew we would need to have a Class B license.  In order to get a Class B license you have to take both a written test and driving test.  We didn't realize that we should have been studying the "Texas Commercial Motor Vehicle Drivers Handbook".  Both Mike and I failed the test that day.  But, the state allows three tries, so we got one of the manuals and began vigorously studying.  It meant memorizing a lot of weight, height, length and specifications on different kinds of rigs and trailers.  So today, both of us nervously headed to the DMV to re-take the test.  And the results were??  Yeah!  We both passed.  Now we only need to take the driving test to finish things up.  The earliest they could fit us in is May 27th because of the number of driving test that already have slated from this tiny office.  We had hoped to be out of Livingston was before this, but alas, you have to do what you have to do.  Thus the title, "Hung up in Texas".

So, you may wonder, why try to do all this in Livingston?  Livingston is the headquarters of the Escapees Club to which we belong.  It's also where we have our residency established through a P.O. box.  Plus, the good folks at the DMV here (all two of them) really understand the ins and outs of what we need to do in order to accomplish our goals.  And, by the way, I have to say that for the log of work these two people have they are very accommodating and have a good sense of humor.

Livingston doesn't have a whole lot to do, so we will probably venture out to explore as many outlying areas as we can during our extended stay here.  If anyone is familiar with the area and has some suggestions, we are certainly open!

So now all is currently with our exploring.  I hope to have more interesting news and pictures once we head through Louisiana and finally as we explore the Natchez Trace on our way to Nashville.

Best wishes from Katherine, Mike and Bear (of course)!