April 1, 2012 – And the joke was on us today!

Yesterday morning, we left Balmorhea, TX, headed to Segovia, TX, about 350 miles east.  About noon, I changed our plans.  I called for a reservation at Junction North Llano River RV Park in Junction, TX, which is about 20 miles before Segovia, so I could do a load of laundry. 

This photo sums up what West Texas looks like—on a good day.

This is the Junction North Lllano RV park—quite a contrast:

It was a good thing we had electricity.  It was hot.  How hot, you ask?  Well, at 5 pm., on the shady side of the camper, the thermometer read,  are you ready, on March 31, it read:  103.5!!!  The shady side, not the sunny side!

This is one of the up-graded sites. And, of course, the river.

A river means you’ll find fishermen—fishing and wishing.

And for a bit of proof that we are back in Texas—in the springtime, just look out the truck window.  Texas Blue Bonnets covering the landscape.

What a welcome back home!

This morning we expected a quick trip around San Antonio, TX, on the Anderson Loop 1604.  I checked the Garmin traffic advisory—none listed.  Boy, did it play the April Fool’s joke on us.  About 9 miles east of I-10, the traffic came to a stop!  I mean—a STOP!

We could see miles of stopped traffic ahead of us—and too late for the last off-ramp to escape.  We were caught in the TX DOT April fool’s joke—they had closed Loop 1604 for the weekend!!  And they did not put up any warning signs of notices on the Amber-Alert boards.  Us—and thousands of other vehicles drove into their trap!

It took over an hour to inch our way off the highway on to the frontage road and drive two or three miles on the frontage road—which was packed—and then get back on the Loop.  By then, the Garmin traffic advisory was saying a delay—of ONE minute!  Glad I don’t pay for that service!!

If there had been just one sign, we would have gone south to the I-410.  The only cute thing we encountered was this motorcycle:

Check out their trailer.  What a cutie.

We had planned on stopping before Houston in order to travel through Houston in the morning—when we are fresher.  Good thing!  By the time we got down to Columbus, TX, we were tired.  We are at the Columbus RV Park.  (Escapees’ discount park--about $24.)

The meeting room and facilities.  The pool is just off to the right.

Doesn’t this invite to to sit a spell?  The owners are very creative.  The bathroom signs are cute:

And the ladies bathroom is decorated with a touch of home too:

The sites are close together, but they have room for big rigs too.  We were happy to be here tonight.  We hope to be in Livingston by tomorrow afternoon—and glad it will be April 2, 2012!  Enough April Fool’s jokes.