Potters Creek May 2022
-----I canceled my trip to Lake Belton which should have ended today, May 31. Josh and Cat were going to Philadelphia and bringing Skeletor to our house to stay while they were gone. I wanted to be here for that. I also was feeling my age a bit after that super quick jaunt to St. Louis, and the idea of driving all the way up there wasn’t appealing to me at the moment.
-----Not long after I canceled Lake Belton, I made a new reservation for Potters Creek COE Park on Canyon Lake. I really love this park, and the fact that it only takes an hour to get here (just like Kerrville) is quickly making it one of my go-to parks. The fact that they give me half price off of every night because I’m an old fart is also an incentive to come here.
-----Since the COE parks will not let you enter a millisecond before 3:00 PM, I took my time getting ready yesterday. I washed clothes, watched TV, filled my bird feeders, and stopped for camping groceries before heading to the lot to get the Colby 2.0. I even took my time there. I opened all of the windows and turned the exhaust fan on in the bathroom to cool it down a little. I was hoping that it would be easier to cool down upon arrival at the park. I think it worked a tiny little bit.
-----Just as I was about to go out the gate of the storage lot, disaster struck! I accidentally lowered the rear passenger window. Normally that would be no issue. But as it went down, I heard a grating noise followed by a "kerplunk". I tried to bring it back up to no avail. I pulled through the gate, did an awkward U-turn and went back to my space. I called Rachel to ask what she thought I should do. She was shopping at the time. I was in a foul mood and told her I was just going to cancel my trip and hung up the phone.
-----Y’all know I am too addicted to camping and too stubborn to give up on a trip that easily. I decided to look for some cardboard in the camper and try to duct tape it in place. My "I’ll use it some day" hoarding skills paid off. I found three pieces of cardboard and taped them on. They stayed in place well on the trip up here. As soon as I got here, I went to Freedom Chevrolet’s website and booked a service appointment for Friday.
-----I almost missed my turn onto the road that goes to Potters Creek. About three minutes before I got to it, my friend Ann called with an iPhone question. That blocked the screen and overroad the voiced directions on my phone. Fortunately, I saw the turn and made it in time. I told Ann what to try to fix her problem and drove on to the park entrance.
-----I am parked in a different loop this time. During my last two stays, this one has been closed. I had hiked through it and told myself I would choose it if I ever could. The sites are more spread out, and as a result, it is quieter. There is no swimming area, so people who want that squeeze into the other areas. My spot is level, roomy, gets good phone service, is positioned so that one of the sides of the camper almost always has shade.
-----That shade was useless when I first backed in. The thermometer in the camper was reading 94 degrees. I immediately connected the electricity and got the AC going. Unfortunately, I forgot to turn the fridge on. I didn’t remember until about 8:00 PM, so the freezer wasn’t cold enough to keep things frozen until about midnight. I just left my cold stuff in the ice chest until then.
-----When I had everything set up, I remembered that I needed to replace the city water inlet valve. At least, that’s what I am calling it. It is where the hose goes into the camper for fresh water. It was even easier than everyone said it was. Watching about 6 how-to videos a few weeks ago didn’t hurt either.
-----After all that, the temperature was down to 85 degrees. I decided to take a very short hike in the immediate area, since the wind was really blowing and it didn’t feel so hot outside. When I got back, it was already down to 75! Ever since then, I have been battling to keep the AC from freezing me out. Today with no shade and a blazing sun on and off, it got up to 73 inside. If I turn it down even more, it gets too humid for me. So, I end up being a little chilled.
-----I spent the evening last night drinking four of the beers I brought, eating bean and cheese tacos, and watching my current Korean series, Revolutionary Love. Believe me, it’s so much better than the silly title.
-----At about 11:15, I realized that I had been asleep for quite a while. I went ahead and did a quick night time prep and went to bed for real. Unfortunately, I woke up at 4:15 AM and couldn’t get back to sleep no matter what I tried. I eventually gave up and got out of bed. It was okay, since I originally wanted to get up at 6:30 to take a hike before it got hot. I ate breakfast, drank some coffee, played Wordle, read TimeHop, and got ready to go.
-----For my first hike, I went along the roads to the other camping loops. All in all it was a 4.5 mile hike. I got some nice pictures along the way. I am going to process them when I am finished writing about today.
-----I cooled down in the camper and alternated between dozing, eating, and doing stuff on the internet. I had time to kill before the AAMN Training Committee Zoom meeting. I set an alarm to make sure I didn’t miss it and, almost instantly, fell asleep for a nice healing nap. Then I ate lunch and got ready for the zoom. That ended a little after 2:00 PM. I gathered the trash and took a hike to the dumpster. It is pretty far away, so I carried my camera. Instead of coming right back, I hiked through another camping loop taking pictures.
-----The night was pretty much a repeat of yesterday. I made myself some quick bean and cheese tacos using canned refried beans and squirt cheese. They were pretty good.
-----The rest of the evening, I spent watching my latest Korean series just like every night before. I think I’ll finish this one while I’m here. For some reason, I’m not having any issues at all putting it on the TV. I haven’t even had to trick it the way I did on the last trip. I wish Apple or whoever is in charge would stop making changes and just let poor folks like me use whatever equipment they have.
-----OK, full disclosure, time has passed since I started writing this. It is now Thursday evening. I’m trying to catch you up to this point. So here I go with Wednesday morning…
-----I woke up super early again. I really think I get such good sleep in the camper that I don’t need to stay in bed as long. Whatever it was, I was totally refreshed so I got up and had some breakfast and coffee. Then I took the same hike that I took the day before. I saw different birds, and the weather was a little different. Other than that, it was a carbon copy walk.
-----When I got to the tip of the peninsula where the tent campers are, it started to rain fairly heavily. I was really close to a covered picnic table, so I went and had a seat and let the rain do its thing. Unfortunately, there were some swallows in their nests that flew away and sat on posts in the rain because of me. I was able to get some good fairly close shots of them. But I felt bad for making them go sit in the rain.
-----I dried out during the rest of the walk. That’s unusual, because I’m usually so hot and sweaty. But, the wind coming off the lake kept me cool and dry. I didn’t even have to wait to cool down in the camper when I got there.
-----I decided to go over to the Brookeshire Brothers grocery store. It’s about a 5 mile drive. On the way in, I drove out on the road that takes you to Canyon Park. I thought it was a COE park, but it isn’t. Since I am not a county resident, they wanted me to pay $20 to get in. All I wanted to do was look around, so I just did a U-turn and went to the store.
-----The grocery store is really nice. It has anything you could want. If you go on Yelp people talk about the prices being too high, but I don’t really notice that. It’s good quality produce and meat. I don’t mind paying a little more for that. I bought some pork because it was dirt cheap. I also bought some watermelon, strawberries, and blackberries. I had a sudden hankering for fruit. I don’t know why. I also got a six pack of beer from Real Ale.
-----Back at the camper I made some pork tacos for lunch. Then I processed some photos on the computer. I tried to read for a while, but fell asleep. I ended up taking about an hour long nap.
-----I got up from the nap, and got my stuff together to hike to the trashcan again. I needed the extra steps anyway. I took my camera because there are some really good opportunities for taking pictures of bees on the frog fruit.
-----I got back to the camper and messed around a bit. I did that Wordle thing. Then it was suddenly time to fix dinner. So, I did pork tacos again. I put the water heater on so that I could wash all the dishes that had accumulated. If I turn it on for about an hour, I have hot water for a day or so. Anyway, I washed all the dishes and decided to wait for sunset, so I could get some pictures. I sat at the picnic bench enjoying the breeze, although it was very humid, and for whatever reason there was no real Sunset to talk about. There was a tiny bit of pink mist in the sky, but nothing pretty.
-----I watched my Korean series until it was time to go to bed. I had three episodes left and toyed with the idea of just staying up late, but, since I only had one day left to do stuff, I needed to be sure I was awake and ready to do it.
-----When I woke up this morning, (I should mention it’s now Thursday) I had a slight sinus headache. I took an Aleve and went back to bed for an hour. I fixed myself some breakfast, and by about 9:30, I was feeling fine.
-----I had planned to hike along the Guadalupe river today, but according to the Internet that particular trail is closed for maintenance. Instead, I went up to Overlook Park and walked across the dam. I enjoy that hike. It’s such a pretty view of the lake, but on the other side they have lots of wildflowers and insects for me to take pictures of.
-----When I got to the other side, a very cold blast of wind came out of nowhere and nearly blew my hat off. I got the strap out and put it on real tight under my chin. It really did feel cool. A lady was walking by, and I jokingly told her I thought somebody might have finally put the AC on. She said it was a downdraft. Right after she said that, it started to rain. I stood under the branches of a mountain cedar (ash juniper) trying to keep my camera dry.
-----It didn’t look like the rain was going to stop anytime soon, so I put my camera under my shirt and walked all the way across the dam in the rain. It was disappointing because I didn’t get to take pictures of things on the way back. Of course, with the rain there wasn’t that much to see.
-----I was happy to see that the rain didn’t mess up my cardboard insert on the truck window. It held up very well.
-----I started to drive back to Potter Creek, but I decided I wanted to see North Park which is where the other side of the dam is. I parked my truck in the parking lot, and walked about 25 yards to the gate that lets you go across the dam. Since it wasn’t raining, I decided to walk about halfway across the dam so I could take some pictures of the flowers and insects. It was still really cool and windy. But the sun was shining, and it was really beautiful looking at the lake.
-----After that, I headed back over to the camper. I fixed some lunch. I looked at pictures on the computer. Then I took a nap for a while. I watched an episode of my Korean series, and suddenly it was time to go on my trashcan run. I got some very nice pictures this time. It wasn’t as breezy, so the insects were out in larger number.
-----When I got back from that, I started organizing things for departure. I almost washed some dishes, but realized I hadn’t eaten dinner yet. I went ahead and cooked everything and then washed up all the dishes.
-----I was vacuuming the floors when I remembered that I wanted to clean the air conditioner filter. I decided to try vacuuming it. That didn’t work, so I grabbed the brush I use to clean it and went outside to do it. I could not believe the gorgeous sunset that was out there. I had forgotten all about watching for it. Sometimes when I’m camping and messing around in the camper it just gets late before I know it. Anyway, I went inside and got both my phone and my camera to take pictures.
-----I came back in and finished vacuuming, gave the toilet a real good (and rather overdue) scrubbing. I stowed the coffee pot. Just about the only thing I have to do inside tomorrow is rinse out the last couple of cups I’ve used.
-----I am going to try and get up early in the morning to get on the road. I have to take the truck into the shop tomorrow to get the window fixed, so I would like to have some time to shower, shave, eat, and get my blogs done before I go live at the dealership.
-----AFTER NOTE: Got packed up and on the road by 9:30. The trip home was totally uneventful.
