The Drive to Alvin

10/01/2021

It was raining when we woke up so we had to put off our morning walk for a bit. I knew we had plenty of time as all of the outside work had been completed yesterday. Instead, we ate breakfast and stored away most of the things and by then, the weather had cleared up to where we took our final walk around this beautiful park. I would have liked to have stayed longer but the cost of the additional internet was killing me.

I went through the usual process of unhooking all of the utilities and raising the jacks. It’s wonderful just to push a button and everything just happens all by itself. The miracles of modern technology. With the RV ready to roll, I drove it onto the street before hooking up the Jeep. This time it went much smoother with the exception of getting the lights to work which I eventually did. And then with one last walk around the site, we were off saying goodbye to a very pleasant stay and to all of the deer that watched us leave.

Needless to say, the radio/screen in the RV did not work neither could I get the new Galaxy Tab Lite to bring up the maps to the one I had already preprogrammed so as usual, we settled for the iPhone which never fails. It’s only problem is the small screen but with the voice commands, we were able to follow directions and after a two hour uneventful trip on straight, flat and I must say very boring roads we arrived at the new campground at St Ives in Alvin.
They had had a lot of rain which I noticed on the drive in with lakes, ponds and rivers full to overflowing. In many places, the land itself was flooded and I passed a lot of houses who now had small lakes in their backyards. I wondered if this was going to be a problem for us at the new site.

The check in process was straightforward helped by three very willing ladies and I was assigned site 37. Upon driving in, the first thing I noticed was that my site was virtually under water from all of the rain and as there were a lot of empty sites around, I started to take a look to see if I could find a drier one. We actually ended up in site 36 which, comparatively speaking, was fairly dry or at least did not have standing water. The RV’s are not parked close together but it is nice to not have neighbors on at least one side although my other ones on the other side are a good distance away. They are a young couple who I saw the next day. Have not met them yet.

Setting up was a piece of cake and it wasn’t long before we were settled inside. I took the dogs for a walk just so they could stretch their legs and do their thing before we went back inside and settled in for the evening. Then I remembered that I did not have any milk for the morning coffee and knowing we had passed a gas station not too far back, made the quick trip to it and made a few purchases, one of which was a latte out of a machine that although I drank it, tasted more of syrup than coffee. That was a mistake.
I could not get the internet to work as planned and had to resort back to my Netgear system vowing to talk to the owners first thing in the morning.

10/02/2021

After a good nights sleep, we awoke around 9:00 am to yet another rainy day. For going through most of the summer without too much of the wet stuff, we have sure made up for it these past few days. We settled for breakfast and real coffee for me and by then, it had stopped raining although remained a dull overcast day. We walked around the park for a bit and said hello to a couple of the tenants before returning back to the RV. The office had responded to my internet complaint giving me the proper password which worked. I quickly tuned off the Netgear unit so as not to burn up any more gigs just in case I might need them later. I also had received a package which I had forwarded from PostNet, my mail service, to this new park. It is a Milewise unit from Allstate, my insurance company that records the actual driving time and charges me accordingly. It is supposed to save me money as the insurance is adjusted by the amount of miles it is driven. We’ll see. Now all I got to do is install it in the Jeep and hopefully save money on my insurance.

It is a very grey day and we have yet to see the sun and so far, all I have done is sit here and write which I suppose, is not a bad thing. Better than wasting time watching TV which I very rarely do during the day although I do have a couple of chores like unload the Jeep and set up the wicker couch and table and stuff like that. Actually, I am waiting for the site to dry out a bit before doing that particular job.

The sun finally showed itself so just as planned, I went out and unloaded the Jeep setting up the mat, the wicker couch, the table and finally a couple of other mats for the door. While I was at it, I stuck the Shepherds Crook in the ground, which incidentally pushed in with no effort due to the soggy ground, and hung up both a humming bird feeder and a seed feeder. Be interesting to see if there are any birds of any description that come and use it.
Later in the day, we went out for a walk around the park trying to avoid the standing water that Sandy just loves to walk through. She can get wet just by walking in the grass which she does as there are many more exciting smells there than on the road.

Our walk took us around the park and on the way, we passed the dog park where a lady with her two dogs were sitting and enjoying the sun. I waved but kept walking until I reached the pond with the signs to “Beware Alligators and Venomous snakes”. Yeah right I thought, snakes maybe but Alligators, not so much. The pond has two berms that stick out into the water which are actually drainage pipes covered with dirt so we wandered along one of them to get closer to the water. All of a sudden, a movement down by my feet caused me to jump back and there was an eight foot alligator slithering towards the pond. I am very careful on keeping a close eye out on where we walk but I didn’t see this guy until I almost stepped on him. Needless to say, we made a hasty retreat for a couple of feet so that I could take pictures before getting back to dry land and wondering at the great moment that we had just witnessed. An Alligator, a real live Alligator in it’s natural surroundings even if it was only eight feet long. I guess the signs don’t lie after all.

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We continued on our walk and I wiped the dogs off before letting them back in the RV. Incidentally, BJ and myself after much discussion going back and forth, have finally come up with a name for the RV based on the movie, “Driving Miss Daisy” and I have officially named the RV, “Miss Daisy”. There was some talk whether it should be Miss or Ms. but being from the old school, I won that argument and settled for Miss. Hey, it’s my RV so my choice.

We sat outside making use of the newly installed couch, me with a beer, the dogs taking in the smells and sights for a while before heading back in first to feed them and then to feed me. I find food although a necessity, to be a relatively unimportant part of my life and am happy to conjure up something, anything to eat. Definitely not into grilling or barbecuing and such as many campers are. With the TV working well on the park’s WIFI, I was able to enjoy watching football of the British kind as my Great, Great Grandson, Solly March, living my dream while playing for Brighton and Hove Albion against Arsenal, only for it to end in a 0-0 tie.

And so ended our first full day at this campground.

Written 10/03/2021 – Read my other blog at https://pondblog2011.com