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By Katrina Kane, on March 25th, 2013 In need of a cheaper place to stay and wait on a job, I went down to Hondo, TX to the Escapees club Lonestar Corral RV Park. It is an excellent place to stay if you are a member. The sites are big and level. Mine included a clothesline. The residents and other campers there are very nice people to hang around with. There are lots of activities and socials at the clubhouse. There is also a geocache just outside their fence. 😉
Hondo is a pretty decent sized town with all the fast food joints, a Super Wal-Mart, and H-E-B grocery store which to my delight has similar prices to Wal-Mart and in several cases were cheaper believe it or not. It’s a nice place to spend some time and close to the fun in San Antonio.
Near Hondo is the town of Sabinal where I went to the Wild Hog Festival to dip my toe in the Texas culture. There were lots of food booths of course. I got my first smoked turkey leg there and it was delicious! There were rides for the kiddies, a climbing wall, and lots of things on sale. A school band performed a wonderful concert of Texas tunes in the pavilion followed by a karate demonstration by the local karate school.
The highlight, of course, is the greased hog chasing. All ages can participate in chasing one around a pen to catch it and have your partner put him in a burlap sack then drag it across a line in the pen. The fastest time wins. There were many surprises with some younger kids outdoing the older ones. A couple of the teams had to catch the hog several times before successfully getting it in the bag. The amount of chasing is limited to 3 minutes to keep the hogs from getting overheated. I was very glad I didn’t have to clean any of the clothes of the participants after as it got pretty dirty.
There is one local family who attends the festival every year. They get commemorative T-shirts specially made for the entire extended family before coming. It days make it easy to find each other in the crowd.
  
  
For more pics click here.
By Katrina Kane, on March 20th, 2013  I really miss my Sony wireless TV for setting up my satellite dish. It made a truly unpleasant chore much easier since I could take it outside with me and watch as I pointed and fine-tuned the dish. Unfortunately, that was one of the things lost in my RV accident. We tried a workaround way to do something similar with an old TV but that was no where near as easy to use due to its small size. After, Texas winds trashed my satellite dish AGAIN, I finally went and bought the Winegard Carryout Portable Automatic dish on sale at Camping World. Yes, it is more expensive but it is worth it. It works with both DirectTV (no HD though) and Dish Network (with HD too). It will work with most receiver models. It sets up easily if you follow instructions which are hidden in the box in a foam sidewall. You may need to open it and set a dip switch since it is set to DirectTV by default. You will also have to install the handle.
It comes with a metal bracket you can use to secure it to something nearby. I have both a 6 foot and a 30 foot vinyl covered wire straps to secure it close by or farther away. I found them and locks at Home Depot.
After several months of use, I am very happy with mine. It is lightweight. The lower profile and solid dome give it better protection from the wind. It takes up very little room in my RV when traveling. It is so nice to be able to put it outside and have it set itself up automatically. Much easier. I just place it in the general direction of the satellites and let it do its thing. When switching from one satellite to another it is often seamless. Once in a while I get a “No signal” screen for a few seconds when switching channels between satellites but it isn’t bothersome. The downside is it loses signal in any heavy rain, hail, or snowstorm so keep your DVDs handy for those rare nights. On the whole, I highly recommend them but wait for a sale.
By Katrina Kane, on March 9th, 2013 The last time I was in San Antonio, I was a new recruit in Air Force basic training and not allowed off the base at Lackland. That was a verrry long time ago. With a free day over the weekend available, it was time to see what the big deal was. It was a lovely sunny day in the city. Unfortunately, it was also a special one at the Alamo with the original Col. Travis letter declaring to fight on display so the area was very crowded. I had to park half a mile away and pay $10 just for that. The line to get into the Alamo wound down the street and back around the corner which was too long for me. I had heard there wasn’t that much to see and lines were just as long inside to read each tour sign. All I really wanted was to stand there in front of it where history was made and get a picture.
 
If you have lots of money, there are numerous other attractions across from the Alamo such as Ripley’s Believe it or Not, a wild Tomb Raider ride, etc. The visitor’s center is also there so stop in and pickup brochures with coupons first. I preferred to walk along the River Walk. It is as beautiful as they say. There are lovely waterfalls, fountains, flora, Spanish style buildings, etc. on the River Walk. The boat ride on the river was well worth it and inexpensive. There are numerous places to eat just about anything under umbrellas on the walk. I chose to eat at the River Center Mall court which is also river side. The various stalls gave out yummy free samples. I finally settled on a huge plate of Chinese fried rice and chicken teriyaki for lunch. Local musicians provided Mexican music to entertain us while the tourists on the boats coming by snapped pictures. After lunch, I walked almost all the way back to my vehicle via the River Walk while checking out some of the tourist shops. It was a nice day.
  
  
If you want to see more of San Antonio, there are numerous ways to get around. There’s a water taxi on the river of course or you might try some of these other ways below.
  
For more pics click here.
By Katrina Kane, on March 4th, 2013 While I normally do not stay in KOAs due to their high prices, the one in Junction, TX was in the right location for my next stop and I had worked out a reasonable deal on the phone to stay in their overflow area with electric and water just overnight. I was able to stay hooked up and get out easily the next day. It worked out fine for them as the park was almost full when I arrived and within a half hour they did fill to capacity as more campers pulled in and two more had to be put in the overflow area. It is a very pretty park beside the river. They provide nice shelters and BBQ areas. There is an open rocky beach area where you can launch a canoe or kayak. I’m told the BBQ place in town is pretty good. The Dang Cat enjoyed the chickens and rooster right next door to us though I did not enjoy it the next morning. I don’t think the owners of the park would have minded if the cat had gotten out of the RV and gone over to visit them. 😉
The next morning I drove through the Texas hill country to Boerne, TX and the Top of the Hill RV Park. Again, more stinking wind. Grrrr! It caught my other bedroom window which I know was closed, pulled it open, and destroyed all the window hardware as well as the the old vinyl blind.
Sites at the RV park are level, wide, and long. They have a clubhouse, laundry, pool, spa, and billiard room. The staff are very nice and helpful. It wasn’t cheap to stay there but I was able to get at least a couple of days with Passport America and it was close to the office of some people I needed to talk to. One thing I started learning there is to park my RV so that the sewer connection is halfway between my two dump openings whenever possible. I can leave one hooked up and easily switch it to the other that way. Otherwise, I have to run more hose to dump the farther one or hook both up at the same time. I also learned that the Texas hill country is full of burrs. They kept coming into the house on my shoes and made it miserable and painful to walk around barefoot.
Boerne is a pretty good sized town with a Super Wal-Mart and Home Depot. I took full advantage of both and got a new aluminum blind for the bedroom (the window I have taped shut until I can get all the parts to fix it). Tweety’s RV Store is also there and pretty good. It’s close enough to San Antonio for some sightseeing which I did.
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