Heading further north

It seems the worst of the cold weather front is over as of today, so we are slowly heading further north.

Yesterday, we walked around the town of Llano (pop 3,200). Nice little place. Then, we drove up towards Brady (pop 5,300) and found a nice little highway rest area for the night.

A beautiful Texas scenic drive...

We took the bikes out for another ride yesterday morning before we left the beautiful Stonewall area. It was a bit cool... I even had my winter hat and gloves on! But it turned out to be a beautiful blue sky day with a high of about 62F (16C).

We went out for an hour and did 9 miles (14.5 kms), but that including stopping along the way to take a couple of photos.

We needed to switch things up a little bit

We've probably power walked 60 miles (100 kms) in the last ten days. And while that's good for the aerobics, it's also good to get some different types of exercise. Yesterday, we got the bikes off. We needed to switch things up a little bit, and there are lots of places to bike around here.

This is such a beautiful area of Texas. And there are so many back roads that have hardly any traffic on them.

Snake! In a split second I backed away.

We went out for our daily 6 mile (10 km) power walk yesterday morning. Despite the fact that the state and national parks are closed, there are still a lot of places to walk in this area.

We are right beside the Lyndon B. Johnson State Park and Historic Site, and on the other side of the river is the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Site.

Luxury Riverside Boondocking

With most public facilities closed, we are left to find places to overnight on our own. We're pretty good at that, but we also use the iOverlander app to get some ideas. It tends to list a lot of Walmarts and private RV parks and they are definitely a last resort for us, so we have to filter through the listings quite a bit.

But occasionally we come across something worthwhile. In this case, the listing was titled "Luxury Riverside Boondocking". So we drove over there yesterday.

Our pet butterfly

We always make an effort to get out for some exercise. Every day. It's at least a 4 mile hike of some kind and that's the minimum. In fact the last few days have probably averaged 6 miles (10 kms) per day.

And of course the terrain makes a difference. Some places we are trekking through the brush, and other places we are power walking on a paved pathway.

We do have a plan...

Yesterday morning we received notification by email that Texas State Parks were all being closed to the public by 5:00pm that day.

We went out for our morning hike and discussed what that meant for us. We had planned on using some of the Texas State Parks while making our way north. The only time it looked like it was going to be a problem was the upcoming Easter long weekend.

Sherman needs some minor repair

A few days ago, Sherman began acting up. Nothing serious, and I recognized the symptoms right away. The idle seemed high and erratic. And, the "Service Engine Soon" light had come on.

I checked the error code, and sure enough it was exactly what I figured. Sherman needed a new idle control module.

Sherman's 10 year old batteries are still doing fine

This last few days of dry camping have been a test of Sherman's now 10 year old Trojan batteries. It was in March of 2010 that we bought our new T-105 6 volt batteries. I knew they had a good reputation, but never expected them to last ten years.

I'm sure there has been some deterioration, but they are still doing fine!

Rain rain, go away...

Rain is in the forecast on and off for the next several days but we still get out for some daily exercise. We set out with Bob and Denise just before 10am to do another few miles of trails.

Although it spit with rain a few times, we were actually pretty lucky.

Could be a bread baking day tomorrow!

Some states have taken the drastic measures of totally closing all of their state parks.

Here in Texas, they have taken a more logical approach. Each state park has their own rules as to how they limit the number of people coming into the park. We are at Hill Country State Natural Area where they have very few campsites to begin with, and they are really well spaced apart. Campers with reservations are allowed into the park, and then they limit the number of day users and when that limit is reached that's it.

Finding places to overnight

We stayed our first night in Texas at the rest area on the I-35. The tourist office there was closed, but they gave a 1-800 number if you needed any info. And the bathroom building was open because truckers stop in as well and use the facilities. And they left the WiFi on.

On Tuesday, we filled up with gas at $1.70 USD per gallon ($0.64 CAD per liter). Sherman is happily full of cheap fuel!

March Expenses

Not a bad month, mostly because we sat at the Las Palmas Midway Inn for the last ten days of the month. That kept our entertainment expenses low, and because of the coronavirus we didn't eat out very much.

But, we did do some stocking up for the trip north. Mostly because we wanted to spend as little time as possible doing any grocery shopping, so Ruth had made a bunch of meals and froze them... in fact, the freezer is totally full. We also stocked up the liquor cabinet because most things are quite a bit cheaper in Mexico.

Adios, Mexico

I don't enjoy long driving days, but sometimes it makes sense. In this situation, none of the attractions we wanted to see along the way were open, and so we enjoyed one last day at the Las Palmas Midway Inn in Matehuala. Hard to believe we were there for 10 nights!

We hit the road at just after 7:00am. First thing we did was to fill up with some very cheap fuel.

The things that went wrong...

Eight motorhomes and 14 people touring Mexico together for four months and doing 7,000 kms (4,500 miles) worth of sometimes rough Mexican roads.

What could go wrong?

Well, as we explained to the group at the beginning of the trip, a lot can go wrong. It's not a matter of if there will be a problem... only when.