Chain-O-Lakes State Park - 2022

 

 April 18, 2022 - April 21, 2022

We awakened to 1"-2" of snow and that should have been a warning of more bad weather to come.  And if that wasn't enough, planning a camping trip to Northern Indiana in April was just asking for trouble. Oh well, we would just tough it out.

 We stopped in Muncie, IN to pick up our trailer.  The further we drove North the less snow was found.  We arrived at Chain-O-Lakes State Park and there was no one there to check us in.  We got to our campsite and discovered the entrance to the drive wouldn't accommodate both the truck and  trailer and the site was in a low area, and very muddy.  We should have gone to the office and asked for a larger and drier site.  We didn't and that would become a big mistake as the daily rain made the site worse.

 

 

Cold temperatures, daily rain, mixed with high winds made it near impossible to grill outside, and sitting outside was a no go,

The Stanley Schoolhouse was built in 1915.  The stone above the door has an interesting story.  The stone with the year the school was built has the "9" backwards.  There was a flag pole mounted to the wall that made it hard to get a good picture.

                                                 Noble County Courthouse, Albion, Indiana

                                                       We had lunch at the Albion Ale House

 

                                                 The only time we saw the sun was a sunset

The trip was a four (4) night stay, but we cut it short by a day.  Lesson learned, don't plan a camping trip to Northern Indiana until May or June.

2022 - Texas Spring Trip

 

 

 

 Embarking on the start of new adventures.  We sold our Four Wheel Pop-Up Camper in October and ordered an Oliver Travel Trailer.  Our delivery date got moved up from June 29, 2022 to March 10, 2022.  We had cancelled our original March trip to Texas, and scrambled to piece it back together.  We left home for Memphis, TN to spend 3 days with Susan's brother.  Sarah and Molly get along great and Molly usually spends a couple days searching for Sarah after we leave.  They have become quite attached.

 

We headed to Linden, TN where we spent the night at the Commodore Hotel.  In the morning we headed to Oliver Travel Trailer in Hohenwald, TN to pick up our new Oliver Elite II trailer.  Orientation last a couple of hours, and soon we were hooking up and moving the trailer out to Oliver's 7-site campground with hook-ups.  This allowed us to check all of the systems and they sent someone out to touch-up a couple of things.  There is a steep learning curve, but thankfully we watched and re-watched their videos on all the systems.

We opted for the twin beds and upgraded the mattresses.  We slept very well on the first trip.

We moved to David Crockett State Park for two nights.  This allowed us to experience our first cold temperatures with a little snow.  All systems worked very well.

Our next stop was Poverty Point Reservoir State Park, LA across the Mississippi River from Vicksburg, TN  We spent two nights here.  This state park is a black bear habitat.  We didn't get to see any bears.  We took a hike along the shores of the reservoir.  They have some beautiful cabins to rent right on the water.

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 We found our first Whataburger in Shreveport, LA.  I have to have my Whataburger fix when we are in Texas.  Whataburger with cheese, guacamole, and jalapenos.  I worked in five Whataburger stops on our trip. We also stopped at Buc-ee's for fuel and paid $3.349 a gallon.  We only had a couple of places where we paid more that $4.00 a gallon

 

We stopped for the night at Mill Creek Campground COE on Lake Sam Rayburn in Texas.  We had a great water site and a beautiful sunset.

We came through Beaumont, TX and took the ferry from Bolivar Peninsula to Galveston Island

We spent the next nine nights at the Galveston Island KOA.  We are waiting for Galveston Island State Park to re-open after being closed for over two years to completely re-build the beach side campground.

 

A trip to Galveston wouldn't be complete without spending time on the Strand and having lunch at Little Daddy's Gumbo Bar.  Gumbo and Crawfish Etouffee for an amazing lunch.  We love stopping in the different stores to shop and browse.

Susan's twin sister lives in LaMarque, TX.  She cooked up a Saint Patty's Day lunch and we spent the day visiting.

We all spent an afternoon walking on the beach.  It was windy everyday, but the sun and warmth made up for the wind.

Walking the beach at sunrise gave us some beautiful orange skies

 

After nine wonderful days it was time to start working our way back North.  We had a planned stop at Lake Livingstone State Park for 3 nights.  When we made all of the reservations, the water sites were all taken.  The morning of day two we were informed that a valve at the water tower had broken and they ended up closing the entire park down, giving us to 2pm to vacate.

We found a KOA in Lufkin, TX for the next two nights.  Water was cold but refreshing

Our next stop was at Lavonia Park COE on Lake Lavon, East of Dallas/Plano.  We spent time visiting my sister and brother-in-law and our soon to be 98 year old mother. We weathered a bad storm and fortunately the Tornadoes and hail stayed away.

 Sarah didn't like Freckles.  Freckles was a bit rough. After returning from a visit to my moms we found Sarah hiding in a corner under a chair.  I did manage to put a small puzzle together will visiting mom and she got a good laugh when I completed it.

 

After three days in Plano, we continued North staying at Willow Beach COE on the Arkansas River, near Little Rock and just off I-440.  We had a great site right on the river and had a beautiful sunset.

                              In the morning we were greeted with fog hanging above the river.

Our last night was spent at Canal Campground COE on Lake Barkley, KY We had a beautiful site above the lake, which is actually the Cumberland River.

                                                               The sunrise was beautiful.

 Finally, we arrived back in Indiana at Evansville, IN and had another 2-1/2 hours to the house.  We are looking forward to using our new travel trailer.  More adventures planned for 2022.