Exploration was the word of the day today so we hopped into Charlotte, bought some fuel and headed northeast on US-79. We passed through Minden where we briefly searched for the Minden Historical District but, strangely, it did not seem to exist, at least at our map coordinates.
Failing at that, we continued up 79 to the Germantown Museum which was closed because this is Louisiana and hardly anything is open on Sunday. Peg shot a few pix over the fence of some old, small wooden buildings behind the Museum itself. Back to US-79 again, we continued mostly north through Homer and Haynesville before crossing the border into Arkansas. In Arkansas, we continued north through Emerson and into Magnolia where we turned west. We were then back in Louisiana on US-371 headed southwest and then southeast back to Minden. While there were a few nice houses in the rural parts of the loop north and back to Minden, most of the homes looked like these folks live a tough, brutal sort of life with few luxuries. We noted there were a large number of oil industry installations in the area.
The houses are built on ground which is covered by many small hillocks and there are few drainages. Much of the terrain was covered by small ponds or bayous with forests of cypress; swamps. Numerous turtles were seen enjoying the sunshine while perched on logs and limbs jutting from the swamp bottom. We spotted some cardinals and bluebirds but not anywhere near the numbers we witnessed in Texas.
Peggy drove today so we mutually decided she needed a reward and we went to a restaurant called The Crawfish Hole #2 not far from our spartan RV park. Neither one of us are big crawdad fans but we were lucky because they also serve other stuff. Peg went for grilled chicken (C+) and I had the shrimp (B+) along with cole slaw and fries plus 3 hush puppies each. The hush puppies were actually good and the fries would have been terrific if they would have been hot. We did not get as rewarded as we thought we were going to be.
We took a few pix. To see ’em, click here

Today was a travel day. We split from Camp Tonkawa Springs RV Park in Nacogdoches, TX, and drove northeast toward Louisiana. It is nice country with forests and pasture lands spread over rolling hills. It did not look like a lot of rich folks live in this corner of Texas. We spotted many residences with multiple late model cars parked in front but not a single house with a foundation.
We ultimately arrived at I-20 and turned east to Louisiana. We passed through Shreveport on possibly the worst section of highway in the entire Federal Interstate system. The road itself, bridge approaches and bridge decks have paving surfaces that most closely resemble rubble and we were surprised more of our possessions in the trailer were not where we left them. We exited the freeway in the town of Minden and pulled into the Cinnamon Creek RV Park. It is basically a gravel parking lot with power pedestals and water spigots sticking out of the ground. It is adjacent to a pretty busy street but we will have to spend the night before we will know if it is too noisy. Our phone works well here, too. Surprisingly, there is also invisible good wi-fi.
Maybe this will work out. Camping in town has a few benefits and I noticed there is a liquor store across the street.
Got a shot of the local deer. To see them, click here

The nights here at Tonkawa Springs RV Park are very quiet. They do have a herd of peahens that can get us up early but there are no road sounds or railroad whistles here. It is very pleasant. It is so nice that we did some minor household chores and watched free HBO weekend movies while malingering around our trailer. The weather was kinda crummy.
There are some deer around here and they look like they get an ample supply of food. Some of them look like they are imported from places I have never been before because I have never seen antlers like those on some of the big bucks hanging around our Barbarian Invader. We have a small supply of deer corn to keep them interested.
See pix by clicking here

We awoke to the gentle screeches and panicked squawks of the resident flock of peahens this morning. We might have become angry at the early hour but watching the goofy girls is hysterically funny. They all browse in a big group but as soon as one of them detects anything moving or making a sound, they all bolt in all directions for a moment before realizing they are now separated. Then the real high speed action begins as they attempt to regroup. They run faster than they fly.
After watching the birds and the deer for a while, we hopped in the truck and took a drive into Nacogdoches. We initially wanted to follow a driving loop through town where an abundance of azaleas were to be seen but we are a bit early for the bloom. We saw a few early bloomers but mostly we saw sticks. We also found that our map of the flowery streets was totally inaccurate and my navigation suffered. I directed Peggy into many dead ends.
We then took a more informal, random course and checked out some of the gorgeous Nacogdoches houses and there are a bunch of them. Steven F. Austin college is also here in town and they have a very nice campus with some historical buildings and adjacent gardens.
After a bit, we got bored and decided to see if we could find our way to a very smoky fire burning in the forest northwest of town. Although we did have to resort to dirt roads, we found the fire. Some enormous ranch’s staff was burning the undergrowth out from beneath their trees. It wasn’t too exciting.
We continued our rural drive by closing a loop back to town where we pulled out at a restaurant called the Cotton Patch. Peggy was delighted with her grilled pork chops, fried okra and cinnamon apples and I thought their chicken fried steak was almost as good as Dean’s or Jake’s in Oregon. A strange thing happened halfway through the meal. My big, ornate gold crown came off the expensive remnants of tooth #19 and that started a series of events nobody cares to hear about. Wonderfully, we found a nearby dentist who had me back with a full set of chompers before dark.
The sunrises and sunsets here are spectacular.
There are a few Nacogdoches pix to see by clicking here

We were on the road again today. We pulled out of the TT Lake Conroe facility and headed northeast. We did have to start north on I-45 but after 20 miles we turned east and spent the rest of the drive on Texas back roads which are our preferred routes. We drove through the Davy Crockett National Forest and a variety of tiny towns before getting to the western side of Nacogdoches which is pronounced like something.
We skirted Nacogdoches on a beltway road and exited going north, then east, for about half an hour before arriving at Lake Tonkawa Springs Resort. It isn’t really a resort but it does have full hookups, large spaces, a laundry and wifi. Here we found there is a big flock of peahens who charge around the campground like fast bowling balls with little tiny heads. They are quite fast although they don’t seem to be skilled at navigation because sometimes they run in a big circle before charging off in another direction. There are a couple of very showy peacocks, too. They don’t seem to run around like the hens. Maybe it is because they are toting their magnificent tails about.
There is a herd of deer here. They do not look like the deer we normally see in the west. Some of the deer have very dark, almost black hides, about half are the color of a golden lab and a few have spots although I do not think they are fawns unless they were dosed with deer growth hormone when they were small. All of their tails are black. They are very shy.
Peggy was a real trooper today; she did our laundry while I watched the peahens and deer.
We snapped a picture of Steven Austin and some wildlife that you can see if you click here

Last evening the wind started to blow enough to make our normally stable trailer quiver. The wind speed increased this morning and by dawn the breeze was stiff enough to knock down my patriotic neighbors spiffy flagpole. It missed our trailer.
By the time the sun started making it a bit lighter, some rain started to fall. By 0830, it was raining so hard that we could not see through the windows so we lit up Weather Underground which told us we were in a tornado watch area and we should consider finding shelter more substantial than a fiberglass box. Surprisingly, our satellite antenna was still functioning so we turned on local news who confirmed that the weather was going to get worse before it got better. Much lightning, thunder, water and deepening darkness ensued. Then, without damaging any of our stuff, the thunderstorm passed and light came back into the world. During the height of the nastiness, our satellite dish lost all signals but quickly came back on once the scary stuff passed over. By noon it was breaking up and Peggy decided it was a good time for a trip to a store called Soft Surroundings which sells nifty lady stuff.
We drove about 20 miles down the road and started slowly circling an enormous shopping mall in an attempt to find parking within two miles of the target. Soon we were in the store and Peggy was happily browsing among the racks while I oozed outside to sit on a bench and watch Texans strut their stuff. Without losing too much money, Peg found what she wanted and was merciful by allowing us to leave without going in any other stores. I was proud of her.

There was no exploring today. We spent a good part of the day making reservations for an RV space at our next few destinations. It is tedious, frustrating work. RV park offices rarely answer their phones because, invariably, we choose to call during their frequent but erratic closures. It is random – every office is different. It’s a challenge.

Today we got to travel back into Houston to visit one of our favorite museums – The Houston Museum of Natural Sciences. We started by driving down a remarkably congestion-free I-45 into the city which is about an hour south of where we are staying at Lake Conroe. Texas freeways are very circuitous with big parallel frontage roads such that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish the freeway from the frontage. We were fortunate and got on the freeway on the first try.
We finally arrived in the neighborhood where the Museum is located and drove around the block a bit before noticing there was a parking structure for Museum patrons that cost $5 to park for the day. It was only when we got closer to the parking structure entrance that we noted the sign stated the $5 parking was only for Museum members and mere peons have to cough up $20. We went in anyway. The clearance was barely adequate for us to drive our F-250 inside and we brushed the antenna on many of the concrete support beams inside but, fortunately, no roof scraping was encountered.
We took the elevator down 5 floors and entered the Museum at a cost of $25 a head. The Museum is magnificent. They have a giant section with dinosaur skeletons, a spectacular mineral and gem hall, a big section of Egyptian antiquities, a section about Texas mapmaking, a great exhibit with operating model trains, a big display of seashells, another section with ammonites (big colorful prehistoric sea snails) and trilobites, a Foucault pendulum, extensive displays of dead, stuffed Texas wildlife, another section with stuffed African wildlife, a large display of Early American History, an entire hall donated to Amazon rain forest and a nifty museum store. My feet crapped out before we could see it all but we did a pretty good job.
On the way home, I-45 was not the tranquil highway we traveled down on the way into the city. To make things worse, I blooped the navigation and we explored a bit of I-10 that we did not intend to see. Ultimately we made it back to Lake Conroe and I made some curry for Peggy to make up for my lousy navigation.
We had another one of the gorgeous Texas sunsets today.
We took a few pix at the museum and you can see some of them if you click here

We were obliged to take care of some stuff today so there was no exploring. We were productive, however, knocking out a trip to Trader Joe’s, Costco, a liquor store and a fuel stop. We hauled all our loot home and stowed as much as possible in cupboards but some ended up on the trailer floor under the table. We are well-stocked.
We purchased internet access for the time we are staying, took showers and drank some tequila. An all-around successful day. Boring, though.

Today was a travel day so we picked up our stuff and left the Sandpiper RV Resort in Galveston headed north away from the Gulf of Mexico. We were soon on I-45 headed for Willis, Texas, which is about an hour north of Houston. Traffic was frightening in Houston, at least for old codgers like me. Almost everyone was driving faster than us. I was foolish and drove the speed limit.
Houston drivers seem to fall into two categories. The first category are those that drive sinuous, serpentine paths while being preoccupied with texting and talking on the phone. This category of folks do not use their turn signals. The second category drives too fast while texting and chatting on the phone and they leave one turn signal on continuously. There is a lot of highway construction or destruction in the Houston area so the result is a free-for-all with many near misses and close calls.
We eventually exited the nightmarish metropolitan area and continued north on I-45 until we pulled off in Willis and drove to the Thousand Trails Lake Conroe facility. We had a reservation which was fortunate because, despite this place being enormous, it was also nearly full and we may have snagged the last available back-in space. Lake Conroe TT has full hookups, large spaces, pay-as-you-go wifi and the big lake adjacent to the campground. This is our first time in this TT facility.