Westcliff COE Park August 5-9th, 2021
Westcliff COE Park, Lake Belton, August 5th - 9th, 2021
NOTE: Much of this was dictated to Siri or Google. I was going to go in and proofread it, but I have too much going on right now. Just understand that there are lots of errors! Also, Postachio skipped all of my spaces between paragraphs. I went back in and put the dashes to make it a little more coherent.
-----This particular trip is with a group of campers that I belong to a Facebook group called the Central Texas RV Campers. I have gone to two or three other events with them. I started getting really nervous about making this trip about four days ago. I really don’t like driving on Interstate 35. I usually would take I-10 up to Seguin, and then get on130. The problem with that is that it kicks you off the toll road in Georgetown. Then you are driving on I-35 for the worst part of it. Well, that’s not entirely true because you do get to skip Austin. But basically, new Braunfels to Dallas is horrible.
-----I realized I could take 281 all the way to Lampasas, and then cut over and get to Belton lake. That was a very pleasant drive. Of course, weather bug said that there was a thunderstorm that was going to travel with me the whole damn way. But, the weather was great. I did hit a tiny bit of rain in Johnson City. The best thing about 281 is that it is segmented into 20-25 mile chunks. You hit Bulverde, Spring Branch, Blanco, Johnson City, Marble Falls, and Burnet on the way to Lampasas. It really is a nice drive, once you get out of San Antonio.
-----When I actually arrived at the park, I started to set up the trailer and heard a hissing sound coming out of one of my tires. The idea that I might be getting a flat was crazy to me. I had just ordered a tire pressure monitoring system from Amazon and decided that I didn’t want it. Anyway, it wouldn’t have done any good in this situation. I called Good Sam, and they sent somebody out to change the tire. Now, I wish I could say that I just called them right away. But, no. I actually had to contact a friend, Linda Grunkei, to see what she thought I should do in the situation. Let’s face it, I’m useless. Anyway the tire got changed, and tomorrow I’m going to make a reservation to go to discount tires in Killeen and get four new tires on Monday morning.
-----I was so frazzled, tired, and hot from the flat tire ordeal that I couldn’t get the tongue jack to work. I was convinced that there was something wrong with it. I actually opened up my battery storage box, disconnected the battery, reconnected the battery, and tried everything again. Nothing worked. Then, I realized that I was pushing the light switch. I am such an idiot.
-----Once all that was taken care of, and the camper was settled in, I went for a walk. Rachel called while I was walking and we talked about some things. Then I came back to the camper fixed a quick dinner of chicken fajitas, And took another walk until I got my 10,000 steps in.
-----The rest of the night I played on email, watched some TV movies and stuff, and generally just messed around. I’m getting ready to go to bed now. It's about 12:10 AM, which is probably an hour and a half early for me.
Day 2- Friday
-----I woke up well rested, got dressed, made a reservation for Monday at Discount Tire, and headed out for a walk with camera in hand. I hiked all the way to the boat ramp, then walked the RV loop on the way to the Colby 2.0. It was already hot, so I was pretty soaked when I got back. I did my usual thing- sat naked on a towel with the fan blowing on me until I was cooled off and a little bit dry. Then, I popped The SD card out of the camera and processed the photos I had taken so far. I won’t actually put them on the blog site until I get home. When I was finished, I bathed, shaved, dressed in my "around the trailer clothes" and lounged on the bed for what was supposed to be a few minutes. I actually fell asleep and enjoyed about a 45 minute nap.
-----It was still a little too early for lunch, so I fixed my usual breakfast of eggs poached in oatmeal. You have to try it before you say it’s gross. I prefer savory oatmeal, and the eggs make it so smooth and delicious that I almost can’t get enough.
-----I played all my online games and read until 3:00. I had decided to go into Killeen to check out the Discount Tire. The guy on the phone said I would need to drive around to the back and back the Colby 2.0 up to a garage door back there. That triggered alarms in my head. I am not a really good backer-upper and get nervous in tight situations while being watched. I figured it was best to go see it and plan my approach for Monday, even if the approach was to hand the keys to one of the workers. He told me they could do that, If I needed them to. After visiting, I know I can do it myself. It is a wide open lot.
-----I also discovered a brewery not far from the tire place called the Iron Gauntlet. I decided to hit it after scoping out Discount Tire. It didn’t open until 4:00, so I gave myself an hour including travel time and swinging by to check out the backing situation. I ended up only needing a half hour, so I got to the brewery 30 minutes too early, so I went to a nearby HEB and got gas instead of sitting outside waiting for it to open.
-----I tried 8 different bears. I asked them to fill the glasses halfway, making them about 2 ounces each. I don’t drink beer for the buzz anymore. It is all about tasting as many craft beers as I can. Right now, my count is up to 1,389 unique beers. None of the beers at this brewery were particularly good. They all seemed a little watery and tasteless. The place itself was very comfortable. I would go there to hang out on occasion, if I lived in the area.
-----On the way back to camp, I saw a huge sign for an Asian Buffet up ahead. I pulled in and ended up eating two plates full of my favorite buffet crap. There are some things I really like on those buffets, but as far as quality- it isn’t very good.
-----As I drove around the camping loop, I saw Linda Grunke and chatted with her for a minute or two. She introduced me to her sister. Another vehicle was coming so I had to move on.
-----When I got back to the camper, I immediately dressed for a hike and hit the road. I ran into Linda Grunke again at her sister’s camper. I stood there and talked to them for about 10 minutes, but I really wanted to get the rest of my steps in, especially after eating at that buffet. So, once again, I hiked to the boat ramp and back. I had 13,000 steps when I got back,
-----I saw that they were lighting a fire at Linda"s sister’s site, so I grabbed my chair and headed over. Linda wasn’t there, so I came back to the camper and settled in for the night instead. I watched a movie on Netflix and drank some wine coolers before heading to bed early.
Day-3 Saturday
-----I woke up really refreshed and instantly got up to start my day. I made the bed up and drank a cup of coffee before grabbing my camera and taking another hike to the boat ramp and back. I had to do it twice a day to make sure I got my 10,000 steps in. When I got back, I sat naked on a towel with the fan blowing on me until I was dry and cooled down. Then I bathed and shaved. I went ahead and dressed for my brewery excursion even though it was too early to leave.
-----I spent some time writing part of this blog and processing the photos from my walk before getting in the truck and heading to Temple. There are two breweries there that I wanted to try. The first up was the Fire Base Brewing Company. Unfortunately, when I got there, I discovered that I had the time wrong. It wouldn’t open for another hour. I decided to go ahead and visit the other one. I circled the area several times looking for it, but just never saw it. I finally asked Siri to get me a phone number. When I called it, the guy who answered was the owner of the brewery. He said I called his private unlisted number and wanted to know how I got it. I told him Siri gave it to me. He was shocked. He told me that the brewery was located in a barbecue restaurant that I had circled about 4 times. Unfortunately, the staff had a covid breakout and the entire venue had to be shut down for awhile. He was home in quarantine.
-----I drove back to Fire Base, parked across the street, and watch for them to open in my rearview. It was well worth the wait. Out of the four breweries that I visited in the area, this was my favorite. It was laid our like a German beer hall with a military theme. They had 13 different beers and one seltzer. I tried all of the beers and liked every one of them. Before I left, I bought three 32 oz. crowlers to take back to camp.
-----Back at the trailer, I messaged my camping friend Linda to ask what everyone was doing. She was with one of our couples on their boat. She said to head down to her site in a bit. They were all going to swim and paddle board. She knew I didn’t do water, but told me I could come and laugh at them. I decided to take my second hike before meeting up. That way, it would be out of the way for later. Big mistake!!! It was so hot that I felt woozy on the return trip from the boat ramp. The bottles of water that I carried did not keep up with the sweat I was losing. I got to Linda’s site and plopped down on the picnic table bench. I talked to her, her sister, and another friend for awhile. Linda asked me to help her get her phone back to English. It had suddenly changed keyboards to a Korean font. I messed with it for awhile, but gave up. I don’t know how people deal with those damned android phones.
-----One of the couples invited everybody to come for hamburgers. I went to the trailer and cleaned up. I took a short unplanned nap while trying to solve a word puzzle on my phone. Then I packed two growlers in my little ice chest, grabbed my chair, and hiked over to the party site. When I got there, there were several people I didn’t know. Well, to be honest, I only knew three of the people at this campout. I did meet some more. Anyway, I wasn’t that hungry after walking in the hot sun, so I just grabbed a patty, put it on a bun, and squirted some mustard on it. I didn’t take a plate, sample the sides, or eat any chips. I stayed for a while talking to folks until the one couple that was talking with mostly to me and Linda said they were leaving. I left at the same time.
-----Back at the trailer, I enjoyed another quiet movie night, drank the rest of the two growlers I had carried down to dinner, and went to bed early again.
Day-4 Sunday
----I woke up more tired than I expected, so I set the alarm for an hour later and just lay there in bed. I don’t think I really fell back to sleep. Eventually, I had to get up to pee before the alarm went off anyway, so I got up and got started on my day. It was pretty much a copy of every other day at Westcliff: Coffee, hike and take photos, cool off in the trailer, clean up and get dressed, and head out on a brewery excursion. This time, I planned to visit two different towns.
----The first brewery for this day was Barrow’s Brewing Company in Salado. The drive there was only about 20 minutes. I took back roads that led me over the Stillhouse Lake dam before suddenly coming into Salado. The street that I came in on was full of little shops. There was a park with a stream running through it that looked really inviting. They were having some kind of little festival around one of the squares. Had Rachel been there, it would have been fun to explore more of it. But, I went straight to Barrow’s. It is in a big barn of a building. They also have a lot of outside areas. You can ask for a plastic cup to go down to the creek. The ladies that worked there We're very nice. I have to say I really did enjoy this place. The beer was very good. I actually bought a six-pack of one of them to take with me.
----The Next place I wanted to go to was the Bold Republic Brewing in Belton. it was just a short drive away from Salado. When I actually got to downtown Belton, I was just impressed with how nice looking it was. The brewery was on a street off of the square in almost a similar position to where I had been yesterday. I parked way in the back and walked around. Instead of parking spaces in the front of the brewery, they use the space for outside tables. Anyway, they had several very nice beers. I tried as many as I could. I thought they were all equally good. They had a sign for pizza, unfortunately. It looked really good, so I ended up ordering one.It was a bacon, mushroom, and artichoke pizza with a creamy type of white sauce. I actually had to get up and ask for a box to put half of it in. I knew I wasn't going to stop eating it. At least if you're going to eat a whole pizza, make it two meals.
-----While I was sitting there, the server carried a drink out to the people outside. It was really blue. I asked what it was and she told me it was like an adult slushie. It was actually designed to taste like the ocean breeze slush at Sonic. Well that's one of my favorites. She brought me a little sample. I liked it a lot, but it would be dangerous to sit there and drink full-size glasses of that stuff.
-----When I got back to the Colby 2.0, I relaxed for a while and caught up on email and stuff. I wanted to wait until it was a lot cooler before I went for my second walk of the day to finish off my steps. By this time, everyone I knew had already checked out of the park. I was the only one staying over Sunday night. Eventually, I decided it was time for me to go ahead and brave what little heat was left and go for my hike. That little bit of heat that was left was in the upper 80s for sure. I did the same, now familiar route to the boat ramp and back.
-----I did the sit naked in front of a fan thing again until I cooled off from the hike. Then I ate the rest of the pizza and drank that 3rd crowler of beer that I bought in Temple. At the same time, I was actively prepping the camper for the next days departure. I did things like cleaning the bathroom, brewing my coffee and stowing the Keurig, gathering my laundry, and getting as much of my stuff packed and ready to be taken to the truck in the morning as possible. Before long, it was time to just go ahead and get to bed. I wanted to get up at 7:00 in the morning to get everything else finished and be ready to hit the road at 10:00.
DAY 5 Monday
-----I woke up before my alarm went off and went ahead got out of bed. I hustled through everything that needed to be done and actually had the trailer on the hitch by 8:00. I left it plugged to shore power so I could sit inside with the AC on. It was already hot. I played my puzzle games and messed around on my phone until it was finally time to head out of the park. At that time, I unplugged the shore power, plugged the power cord into the truck, tested the signals, and headed over to Discount Tire.
-----The wind was blowing at 20 MPH according to Siri. It sure felt that hard. I hate driving in the wind and white-knuckled it all the way to Killeen. The wind was blowing from the south and hitting the camper broadside. I drove super slow, but I got to Discount Tire on time. There was a big truck where they had told me to put my trailer. I just stopped in the driveway, went inside, and waited until my turn in the line to ask where to park. The guy at the counter told me the truck had left and went out with me and guided me as I backed up to a garage door in the back.
-----I went inside and sat in the AC while I waited. I thought it was going to be a long time. The store was absolutely slammed. They kept telling everyone that they were running three hours behind. Luckily for me, they were prioritizing appointments. My tires were on by 11:15. Thirty minutes later, I was paid up and on the road.
-----Except for the crazy wind, my driving under 50 MPH, and taking forever because of it, the trip was uneventful. I did stop at Lowe’s in Johnson City to buy a turkey and Swiss sandwich, use the restroom in the trailer, and grab a bottle of ice water out of the fridge. I was worn out by the time I finally got the trailer dropped off and got to the house.
