We have sort of settled in here at Colorado River Thousand Trails in Columbus, TX. We like the area and have been here before; previous visits were in early 2015 and early 2017. Our schedule this year puts us in this campground until after the 19th when we will finally pass into previously unexplored territory, at least by us. By the end of the month, we anticipate being in Natchez to get onto the southern end of the Natchez Trace.
We were bad again this morning. We went to Schobel’s again for breakfast. This time I was a bit more clever, only ordering enough food for one instead of getting the platoon-feeding chicken fried steak selection. We left fully sated and less than $20 poorer.
I felt great and quite smart so I chose to go on an excursion into the countryside south of Columbus. Peggy queried why I wanted to go that way and I smugly leered at her, fully anticipating a cruise through varied and pretty scenery. Unfortunately, I was wrong and there is very little interesting stuff down that way. It was only after we had gone south, run out of interest and turned west before Peggy told me I did this same route during a previous visit but she wanted to see how long it would take before dull realization took hold. It was only about 20 miles. Peggy consulted our wayfinding systems and got us headed back toward possibly interesting stuff.
Weimar was the first town we encountered on our way back. Many interesting residential structures, wood churches and cheap diesel can be found there. We got on US-90 and headed east toward home. We stopped at a drive-in liquor store (no kidding – a drive-through) and a place called Hartz Fried Chicken. They sold us a baker’s dozen of chicken pieces, a half dozen tasty rolls, a platter of french fries and 3 very well cooked chunks of corn on the cob for $20. I added a dozen chicken livers for $6, only to find out when we arrived back at our trailer that apparently a dozen is some number different than 12 in Texas because there were enough pieces to feed a small army. Quite a bit of our chicken purchase went into the fridge because we were incapable of making much of a dent in the supply.
We took a cruise past some of the gorgeous old houses in Columbus. A couple of them can be seen by clicking here

Yesterday we were sluggards. I went to get some propane for the trailer, utilizing the inefficient and bizarre campground system. According to the established procedure which I verified by calling the desk, I was to drop off my cylinder near the bulk propane tank and it would be filled “ASAP” per the management. An hour and a half later, I went back and noted the cylinder was unmoved and empty. Several campground personnel passed by, some twice, while I lurked near my empty cylinder. I called the desk and asked if someone could fill the cylinder. There was assurance that the cylinder would be all filled up shortly.
Some time later, I returned to the propane filling station and found the cylinder still unmolested by staff. Unprepared to await until my departure date for service, I popped into the office where I encountered a very nice but unnecessarily talkative reception lady who made some attempts at phoning and texting site staff, all for naught. She contacted the manager who phoned and texted the site staff with equally dismal results. Soon the manager was exiting the reception building parking lot in a search for his missing or blind and deaf staff. I paid the lady at the desk for a 30 pound propane refill and by the time I drove over to the propane filling station, the cylinder had miraculously been filled but none of the miscreants were in sight. We spent the rest of the day watching the birds and the deer. It was great.
Today we violated one of our not-written-down rules by returning for another breakfast at Schobel’s. Two day ago I got a meal there that was actually too abundant, even for a porker like me, so I scaled back some and we got out for less than$20. It seems to be a great place to eat; we may have to try it for lunch. Afterwards, we took a spin over to a little town called Bellville where we found a real, old fashioned meat market with real meat and real butchers. Of course it is entitled the Bellville Meat Market. We got away for less than $40 although I certainly could have happily spent another $200. We also found a strange thing – Newman’s Castle which is exactly what it sounds like except it is in a swamp in Texas.
The back roads around here are fantastic with little attractive towns, beautiful country between them and animals everywhere, a few of them of the domesticated type. We saw some deer today with spiral horns. We don’t think they are from around here.
See some Bellville stuff. Click here

We were free to explore today. We started our day by driving into nearby Columbus for breakfast at Schobel’s Restaurant. They are not only inexpensive, they have good food. Peggy had chicken and waffles and I had a rather large chicken fried steak that was accompanied by onion-laced hash browns, a couple eggs and two freshly baked English muffins. The whole shebang was $21 and all the food was very tasty.
Our trip to the trough completed, we then took off northeast on TX-71 toward La Grange. There we stumbled across the Czech Cultural Center where they have a very nice main building with meeting facilities, a large library, a museum dedicated to Czechs who settled here in Texas, a gift shop with Czech stuff for sale and a great deck. Nearby they have assembled a bunch of historical buildings making a little village behind the main building. The facility was staffed by many volunteers who were both informative and quite friendly, considering we are plainly not from Texas.
We also took a little spin through Fayetteville, a cute little town with gorgeous residential and governmental structures. The city hall in the middle of town is a peach. The back roads around here are fascinating. There is both imported and domestic wildlife, birds everywhere (although more than a few vultures feeding on surplus roadkill deer and skunks), beautiful countryside and hardly any traffic. We like it.
We got pix of our checking of the Czechs. Click here

Reluctantly, we departed Lake Medina Thousand Trails in Lakehills and continued our journey east. Lake Medina was a great place to malinger for a few weeks.
We ignored the detailed driving instructions emanating from our GPS unit, choosing instead to skirt the entire San Antonio area by taking the outer loop road around the north half of the traffic nightmare. Once on the east side of town, we ramped over to I-10 and pushed down the throttle. All our recent trailer repairs seem to have functioned flawlessly.
A few hours later we arrived in Columbus, TX. We have stayed here a couple times before and we like it because there are great local food outlets and abundant wild animals. We received the last space available in the Colorado River Thousand Trails campground that had a sewer connection so it appears we will get to stay in the same spot for our entire stay here instead of having the joy of taking our trailer to the dump station every four days. We are elite members (although not elite persons) so we can stay 3 weeks without paying for anything but food and fuel. Our spot is shaded by big oaks. There are lots of birds in the oaks. The cardinals stand out like a sore thumb in this green enclave. The sunset today was magnificent. Our satellite antenna works perfectly. We have a sufficient wine, beer and booze supply. We have ample food. We are happy campers.

When we left on this year’s excursion back in early January, we figured we would end up laying low in pleasant weather in Texas. We are reluctant to go anywhere north of the 33rd parallel until it quits most of the nasty snow and ice stuff on the other side of the line. However, we have been here in Lakehills near San Antonio for 3 weeks and it is time to move on east.
Despite some lousy weather, Lake Medina Thousand Trails has been a great place to hunker down and wait out the cold. The laundry is okay. The wifi in the campground is terrible but there is pretty good internet access at the Lakehills library just a couple miles away. Shopping is nearby. Site utilities worked well. There are tons of animals wandering around. The lake is pretty. Best of all, since we are members, it is free.
Peggy and I did a partial prep for departure today. Peggy cleared the way for the slideouts and found places to stow all our crud for travel. I took care of the outside utilities except power and satellite. We teamed up on some minor exterior repairs left over from our trailer’s leaf spring fracture/tire destruction disaster 3 weeks ago. If we get up at a reasonable hour, we should be on the road toward our next destination by 10:00 AM tomorrow.