Gather round for the next stop story at Gather Campground Bell County

Today’s trip was a 415 mile trip that seemed to be the right thing to do when I planned all this in the spring. Now multiple weeks into the trip and many journeys later it seemed a long way to go. That and I was covering for our CMO so had to be available on a travel day (I usually planned for no meetings on a travel day or switched with my CMO but she was in Italy) and we left late due to a couple of mid day meetings. Not a problem as we stopped on the way out yesterday and the “gentleman behind the curtain” described in my last post said a late departure was no problem. I called the next campground and they gave me the gate code and our site number so a late checkin was possible. That said aside from it being a long day on the road…setting up and finding our site in the dark can be a challenge. But…we did it.

I had planned to show Jo Austin and the night life and music I had seen when I was in Austin for business twenty years ago. The weather looked iffy for the following day so we decided to see Austin Day 1 to be able to walk around. We left around 5 for an hour trip into Austin arriving there just after dark and in time for rush hour lol. We pulled into a public parking garage with a height limit that was just over our height as I had parked in other garages before but as we pulled in the plastic pipe that shows how high the clearance is hit something on the truck as we pulled in. There must be some wiggle room right??? And we had cars lined up behind us. I will go slow to avoid hitting a bump and bouncing. Well I decided to go for it cringing every time we came to a tight corner or hump in the cement. Definitely not the easiest garage to park in though I saw other pickups. Made it to a spot and parked. The short and sweet of that night was that Wednesday night wasnt the college age to senior music scene I remembered but stale beer smells, two bad but loud musicians and lots of professional drinkers. We walked around for a half hour and decided to head back. Very disappointing as Austin is a very nice town we just hit an off night. Jo had mentioned she would have been happy with ice cream so I googled the local DQ and off we went. Annnnd I had a gift card from my daughter so not only did we have ice cream but free ice cream.

And I got to see my first driverless taxi pull in while we were eating my ice cream so not a complete loss of a night.

We headed back to the campground with plans to go to Waco the next day for a trip to Chip and Joanna Gaines of HGTV fame to see their silos, stores and bakery. I was ready to have a cupcake I had heard about.

The campground is pretty new and had very nice amenities. Everything worked well except the washer and dryers that you had to download an app to use. Jo threw up her hands and off I went to do it. After loading the minimum of $10 and a few tries I got them to work with a reminder sent to my phone when done. Way too complicated for mortal men not the app but using it. The next day we did more loads and it charged me twice for the same load. The staff person from the campground said she had issues with them to. I understand they are trying to get away from people needing quarters that then jam but how about tap to pay credit card readers like the rest area vending machines. Not that I have ever gotten M&Ms there. That’s my story and…

The next AM we headed to Waco with Mocha in tow as they said dogs were generally welcome on the Silo grounds. We found the location easily and parked around the corner. I can imagine parking would be an issue weekends and on season but for us easy. The grounds are very impressive to think the area had been run down cottonseed oil mills and silos. They have made this a true destination with an open area for cornhole and soccer as well as food trucks and covered picnic tables. And multiple small cute buildings with different types/themes in each one as well as a restored church. Prices a bit out of our league but really nice stuff. Oh and the grilled cheese and bacon sandwiches from one of the food trucks we had were great.

I did buy some of their coffee as the smells from the coffee shop were marvelous and we headed back to the campground after a quick detour to see the big lake there that they recently purchased and renovated a home on.

Gas prices in Texas were great especially after $5 gas in California. It was easier to fill up my 36 gallon tank in Texas and two dollar and change prices.

We headed back to the campsite and got ready for the next days trip hoping the rain would lighten up a bit both for a quiet night and a dry day to break down camp for the road.

Next stop was the ….was the…was the? Oh yes I remember..The Alamo.