April May West Texas

04/31-05/04

Odessa, TX

Mesquite Oasis RV Park

The only park that had space available thanks to the oil boom, it was a nice campground for 4 nights.  Space 98.  The only problem?  The local officer's dog(s) are outdoors, and bark throughout the night.  Not continuous barking, just enough to keep you awake - every 10 minutes from 3 am to 5 am.  (Eye Roll!)  And I'm fairly certain nobody says a thing.  I can't believe the officer and family can sleep through the racket.  Those poor pups, they looked so bored.  I'm pretty sure I never saw them out of their little cage.  

$35/night

Great shower setup ... although, town lost power one night, so the water availability in the shower was finite and running out quickly!  We were racing the tank storage, and the water to air output kept changing in a breathy direction.  By the time the shower was over, it was just dripping.

Spent some time with my in-laws.

The local community center offers yoga two days per week.  I decided to join and went in with fairly low expectations.  It was awesome!  ROming Yoga has great teachers.  Those classes were exactly what I needed, and gave me much needed stress relief.  

No organic produce at the local groceries.  The set-ups are weird, like a miniature Wal-mart.  So the "HUGE" grocery store (I'm looking at you HEB) ends up being much smaller than you thought.  

Ready to head out.

05/04-05/06

Monahans Sandhills State Park

Site 23

One of the deepest sites, nicely situated.

Nice shower for the ladies, very hot water.

Men's shower is not so nice, no curtains on the showers, so memories of locker room's past!

In May, you cannot do much outside from about 10 am to 7 pm.  I slept one afternoon away, probably fighting off some viral invader.

The pups and other half venture out in mid-day (the joys of producing much more melanin than others, or a protective fur coat). 

The pups go wild every-time they see, hear, or smell rabbits.  Walks are an interesting experience: each human holds one dog, each human gets pulled along by one dog (these canines are in the low to mid 20 lb/9 kg range), and each human gets a heckuva laugh as each dog hop lunges down the road on two hind legs and a collar ... no wonder those back claws are so short!

The dunes exploration gave us beautiful sunsets, tactile pleasures (the sand gets cool when you sink your feet down), and animal track challenges (what made that ... bird dragging tail).

Our produce is still running low, but no grocery store in driving distance has heard of "organic."  As a result, we are not restocking until our next trip.  While we did have to unhook the Jeep, we did not drive it anywhere.  All the park amenities are within easy walking distance of the campground.

I yoga'ed under the stars.  Sand as a mat stresses your balance.  My crow did not have much lift as the sand shifted!  :)

April CenTex

04/25 and 04/26

Belton Lake COE campground

Live Oak Ridge site 25

This may be the largest site we have ever had, nicely shaded.  Off by itself, a bit.  Sites 40 to 48 are heavily treed, sites along the water 1-22 and 33-38 have little shade coverage, BUT they do have covered picnic tables.

The wind blows off the lake much of the day, which keeps the area cool as the temps begin to rise.

I opened the morning of the 26th with kickboxing, and had a blast keeping under the shade tree.

The water is clear and dark turquoise in color, and while we have no hiking trails, the campground is plenty large enough to stroll with the pups.

We saw a cat our first night, the dogs really wanted that cat, and verbally alerted the ENTIRE campground of the presence of said cat. They are so embarassing!

We continue to change the camper to suit our needs, this includes bringing real washclothes instead of the microterry fiberclothes with which we started our first trip.  Microterry towels work moderately well (and SERIOUSLY) cut down on the volume of toweling compared to cotton bath towels.  However, the washcloth version of microterry works abominably as a washcloth, as it just rolls over flesh, scrubbing is practically impossible.  Give us cotton washclothes, the volume difference is worth the scrubbing power.  

The showers at Belton Lake are some of the hottest and largest we've seen.  Although, the shower head in one of the ladies sounds like a jet engine taking off!

We hear loud booms echoing through the campground during the day ... we wonder if some blasting is being done nearby.  This does not occur at night.

04/27-04/30

40 miles between Temple and Lampasas, and the foliage completely changes.  Temple speaks deciduous oaks with regular rainfall while just a bit west, they speak flat plateau covered in short evergreens that rarely see rain.

San Angelo State Park

Our lake front site #13 is not very lake front since the lake is at 9.1% capacity.  But the sites are nicely spaced, the environment is serene (though dry), and the neighbors are well behaved.

Wind blows through the area pretty constantly, the helps keep the temperature down.  Protect yourself from the sun, it is brutal here!

Yoga and Bodystrikes workouts in the morning or evening hours and walks around the park.

The showers are a bit warmer than lukewarm, no concerns of burning.  Nicely setup, appear to be ADA compliant, though I did not test the bench.

Cactus, Acacia, and wildflowers galore.

Mr SMT requests full setup photos

This is how we roll.

Packing Fails and What we need next time

As we close up our inaugural trip in the truck camper, I think over the items we don’t need.

The cooler. While we needed this on our week trip up to obtain the camper, it was not used on the entirety of the camper usage portion of our travels, so we might as well leave it home next time.

And, except for some food items, pretty much everything else we brought was used.

NOW, what did we bring that didn’t exactly work out as expected?

The Instant Pot is a little big for our storage space, and we may downsize to a mini. It came in quite useful during this trip, and it can be run on a single Honda EU1000 generator.

The generators, I’ve gotten incredibly sick of playing musical boxes and fill the back of the Jeep with stuff. As we have two Honda eu1000s, and they are in the Jeep rather than truck camper storage, we’ve discussed trading in our two for a single Honda eu2000. The body is not much larger and it would fit in the generator storage compartment of the truck camper.

Which means what is in generator storage will need shifting. That does create a bit of a domino effect.

What we forgot?

Dog accessories! Toys and coats! Sheesh. Needless to say, those were items we picked up along the way.

Shoe storage is difficult for two people. We will need to work on that.

I need a clothesline.

I want full size kitchen utensils: serving spoon, spatula. I’ll bring mine along next time, rather than dealing with MSRs foldup set (great for camping, not so great for living with 24/7, or cleaning).

I want metal plates and bowls. Our plastic ones scratched quickly and I have been concerned about cleanliness and bacterial growth since my first bowl of spaghetti. (I just tossed the dishes with red scratches I could not clean.)

My clothes worked out fairly well. However, I did not wear half of the pants and none of the skirts or the dress I brought. In slightly warmer temps, I might have worn a skirt or two. But pants and a single pair of shorts (worn ad nauseum early on) were my staples. I need more tops next time. I brought equal numbers, but should have twice as many tops as bottoms. My tops are worn to death ... and even washed, the hint of travel stench may turn them into rags once we reach home.

The bathroom sink faucet is too close to the bowl edge to be good at anything besides filling the bowl. You need more room to successfully wash your hands or toothbrush.

The rear left burner of our Dometic stove stopped working consistently. It will not light half the time.

We still have problems with the Patriot II losing contact. But it tends to "fix" itself within a couple minutes of failure. (We did forget to unplug it from power one night, and almost ran the Jeep’s battery down ... yikes!)

The drawers are awfully hard to open. They stick something extreme. This could be good or bad, we have yet to make a final decision. On one hand, we have found refrigerator items dumping out upon opening the door, but have NEVER found an open drawer or fridge.

On the other hand, once the drawer actually opens, I worry about items flying out. Like knives, seasonings, and can openers. The flying knives is a scary scenario.

Book Review: The Female Vision

The Female Vision
Women's Real Power at Work

by Sally Helgesen and Julie Johnson


Why aren't more women in business and, more importantly, in management?

The authors distill our current dilemma into a few major points:

1)  Our modern business structure was built at a time where women were not involved.

2)  Because of this fact, women are not an essential structural backbone of "most" businesses (or what I've begun to think of as legacy industries).

3)  And finally, women's strongest attributes are not appreciated and recognized by upper management (and I add, even by other women who might happen to be in management).


Because management is largely male dominated, only those attributes that they appreciate are rewarded.  That which they do not understand is not rewarded.  Very much a catch-22.

The authors also make a startling point, women place a different value on their jobs than men do.  Women want to be productive and useful in this job, right now, while men will work in a unfulfilling position in order to attain future advancement.  When women are not fulfilled, they leave their jobs ... describing their dissatifaction with the phrase, "It was not worth it."


So how do we change our business culture and invite women to stick around with fulfilling positions?  The authors make these four recommendations:

1)  Value diverse ways of knowing.  Not everything needs to come down to quantitative numbers.  Intuition is very valuable.  Trust it and make use of it.  Make it an integral part of your team.

2)  Encourage Mindfulness.  Give people the time and space to cogitate and produce.  This is when the brain is creative.  This is where the next amazing ideas begin.

3)  Support Webs of Inclusion.  Make those networking skills work for the good of the company.  Network within your structure at least as much as you network outside your structure.  Women tend to hesitate to ring their own bell, but your co-workers won't know what you can do and how you can help them until you tell them.

4)  Respect the power of empathy.  Women tend to empathize with people better than men.  Organizations who value and use this characteristic are much better off than organizations that do not.


The authors mention a number, 70%, early on in this small book.  That is the amount of skills and abilities they estimate women can tap into with our current business culture.  Imagine a business world where women could use 100% of their talents.  How much better off would we be as a world, nation, city, company, team, individual?



I have left the world of big business, as I found the male dominated oil field to be a frustrating, unfulfilling, irritating waste of my time.  My first boss was a great guy, my second boss was unworthy of the title.  And upper-level management was a hold over from the dark ages.

I later found out that one guy in mid-level management predicted my actions, he noticed I was bored out of my mind and told my boss he needed to engage me or I was outta there.  A couple weeks later, I handed in my notice.

VA, NC, SC, and homeward bound

Nov 6

Heading south through the Delmarva Peninsula, we quickly pass through Delaware, Maryland, and enter Virginia

We take the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel to cross from the Peninsula to the mainland. Crossing under the ocean via tunnel is an interesting experience, I’m glad they were not long. The two way traffic in confined space is slightly nerve wracking!

Check-in to First Landing State Park was quick and easy.

Finding our site was slightly more complicated ... the map does not quite match up (what a surprise!)

A double parking lot makes the site easy peasy and setup went swimmingly (we are so glad that truck camper setup is so straightforward compared to our fellow trailer campers. Those things look complicated!)

A nap.  After flipping on the power and opening the vents, I nap. Thanks to daylight savings time and little sleep, I NEEDED a nap. The pups curled up and we did not wiggle for an hour.

Time for food! He wants pizza (like every night) and Virginia Beach has a Whole Foods.  Grocery shopping!

We are stocking up for the week. 😄

Driving to our newest home in the dark is always a challenge. My night vision comes with halos - an eternal holiday light effect. I SHOULD have left an external light on at the camper, but I did not. Oh well. Easily found. Cooked frozen pizza (no Amy’s Mushroom Veggie 😢, I had to get a Daiya instead, not my favorite). Ate formerly frozen pizza. Shared bits with pups. Happy animals in the camper. 😜

Virginia drivers are slow. 5 to 10 miles under the speed limit slow. I come from a 10 miles over area. Interesting contrast.

The education and health level of people in Virginia Beach appears higher than the Delmarva Peninsula. 

More military. Cute young guys working (I’ve been admiring physiques ... what does that make me? I’ll go with happy. 😜)

Nov 7

It is remarkably dark and quiet out here, especially considering how close we are to the city.

Looking out across the beach last night, I kept wondering what all the pretty lights were ... duh, the bridge tunnel!

Military song and maneuvers began at 8 am ... a bit noisy but of short duration.

The wind is blowing, the clouds are out, the birds are traveling, and we are wandering around First Landing and planning tomorrow. I do not know how you would do this without data connection. I guess your camp host had to know the area a LOT better back then! 

Shower! The showers here rank with Oceanfront Camping at Reach Knolls for comfort and heat level. Spaciousness is similar between the two. (However, OCRK wins cleanliness hands down!!!)

The ADA shower here probably would pass inspection.

Nov 8-9

First Landing State Park

Nov 10

OBX

We went back and forth with the outer banks of North Carolina. The campgrounds are expensive ($50+ per night) and they are smack dab in the center of tourist ville. The national parks are a lovely alternative, but himself was adamant about "no cold showers." (No hot water at the NPs.)

So I started looking for "inner bank" alternatives, which were expensive (still?!?) and few and far between.

Mr. SMT finally gets on the searching for a campground program and discovers that ... North Carolina is expensive. His solution? Oregon Inlet Campground National Park (cold showers). 

But, at $24/night it is a reasonable alternative. We book three days.

The campground is fairly quiet at our arrival. I do not think any more than 10 sites are full during our visit.

The sites are really nice, plenty of room, somewhat protected by the dunes, and they DO have hot water. The only park that does, apparently.

Except, the showers are pull chain, intant on/instant off faucets, with HUGE gaps beneath and on top of the doors. And, with the wind blowing, the temperature is hitting in the 20s when factoring wind chill. This southern bumpkin ain’t gonna do a military shower in 20 degree weather. The sink in the Northern Lite bathroom is perfectly sized and placed to have a spit bath, thank you very much!

Nov 11

A large group has set up in the tent camping area, and the wind is blowing so hard several tents are vying for "first to collapse!"

We drive down to the point, leaving the pups in the Jeep while we frollick on the beach. Mr. SMT discusses getting a driving on the beach permit for our next visit.

Nov 12

We head to Kill Devils Hill for the Wright Brothers memorial. Veteran’s weekend = free entry. Thank you NPS and Veterans!

Nov 13 - 17

Huntington State Park

Murrells Beach, SC

Drive all day

Easy check-in

Nice park, great loops. Choose one of the interior sites if you want more open space and fewer trees, choose a perimeter or the outermost loop if you want more trees, shade, and privacy.

Site 119, shaded, treed, private. Close to bathroom, but not too close.

Practically the parfect park. Good showers, nicely spaced sites, site choice diversity, can camp 42 nights in a row, great beach. Probably our greatest nightmare during tourist season!!! A great option for us in the off season!

Himself enjoyed the drive through Pawleys Island, where we shopped, but HATED Myrtle’s Beach. So we never ventured north to any experiences thataway.

We wandered the beaches during the day and night. (My MIL asked how we get around at night, walk the dogs, and not get lost? My response, 🤯!)

The marsh is really cool. We enjoyed the oyster beds (and spitting oysters closing for low tide), tiny crabs, blue crabs, snails, and birds ... lotsa birds. Two species of heron, egrets, shorebirds, owls.

Nov 17

Exit park

Head south to avoid Myrtles Beach craziness (if it is this bad in mid November, it must be hell in summer!)

We wend our way through county roads on our way to I20W. At least we get to see a C variety. Instead of corn only, we get fields of cotton, too!

Georgia begins the type of rolling hills/mountain foothills I seek. But it is too far south. There’s few degrees separating our summer temp averages. Yuck.

Home

We searched for campgrounds in Florida so that we could spend Thanksgiving on the road.  Florida is full up!  No spaces.  So, we head home.  We camp in rest stops and truck stops, thankful for the cool weather.