Sam Houston Statue

Hunstville, TX
January 2010

Just outside of Huntsville State Park on the northbound side of the highway is the Sam Houston statue.

This thing is huge! . It is the world’s tallest statue of an American Hero at 67 feet tall on a 10 foot sunset granite base. The locals call it "Big Sam".

There is a noce little gift shop with restrooms that make this a

convenient stop. It is easy to get to and is just off the highway.

My kids really enjoyed it.

Lake Livingston State Park

Lake Livingston State Park

Livingston, TX
January 2010

We took a day trip to this park from Huntsville State Park. It

was about an hour drive away. I was really looking forward to

checking out Lake Livingston. I had heard that it was pretty big.
Boy were they right! The lake is huge. It's about five times the
size of Lake Travis at 93K acres. It is 39 miles long and at it's
widest almost 7 miles wide. I don't think it's too deep, but it sure

is big. It might be too big for my little runabout. It wasn't very

windy, but the lake was pretty choppy. This lake does have
alligators, so there goes swimming and skiing. My kids wouldn't

dare touch the water with that information.

The park was pretty nice with lots to do. There was a horse stable with horseback riding rentals. There was a marina that had a store with paddle boat, bicycle cart and canoe and boat slip rentals. The park also had a good size swimming pool.

The cabins were really neat. They were one and a half story
with the sleeping area on the top level. My kids would love

to stay in one of these.

The park had four camping loops. Stay way from the Pin Oak

Loop if at all possible. We found the pads to be very small and

the campsites were right on top of each other. Almost hard

to figure which table goes to which site.

The other loops looked OK. However, one thing we did not like

is that all of the park roads and pads have drainage ditches on

the sides. I would hate to drop a wheel off of one of those

trying to back in your rig.

None of the sites were on the water, but there were several

that had water views.

Washington On The Brazos Historical Site

Washington On The Brazos Historical Park

Washington, TX
January 2010

This park is located about an hour hour outside of College Station.

It does not offer any camping. It's just a historical site with lots
to offer.

There are three parts to the park. The first is the Barrington
living history farm. This exhibit was where Texas's last

President, Anson Jones lived before we became a state. The house is pretty neat and there are stables with horses and livestock on the farm.

The next part is a Library that is operated by Blinn College

that is in the shape of a star. We didn't take a tour of the library

but we sure did appreciate it's unique shape.

The last part includes the log cabin building where Texas penned

it's constitution and declared it's independence. This section

also has an awesome visitor center. The visitor center has some

really neat exhibits and the kids really enjoyed the gift shop.

I could of spent all day in the visitor's center reading all of the

exhibits (almost a mini Bob Bolluck museum).

This park was a little out of the way, but I would recommend it.

If you drive it just right, you can hit the Blue Bell factory on the way back to Austin. The kids will really enjoy that!

Huntsville State Park

Huntsville State Park
Huntsville, TX

December 2009

Jim Hogg Park - Georgetown Texas

Jim Hogg Park

Georgetown, TX
November 20-22, 2009

We went on a spur of the moment weekend camping trip with ten other families. Turns out bad weather came in (cold & wet...nothing dangerous) and everyone bailed. I don't blame them, they were all planning on tent camping. It sure is nice having an RV

trailer : )

From door to door this park is 30 minutes away. Just a short drive up IH 35 from Round Rock. This is an excellent park for winter camping. I don't think I would give high marks for summer camping due to the lack of trees/shade on the RV spots.

The best thing about this park is the new hugh covered picnic areas. I'm not sure if these were replaced because of the 2007 July flood. They sure are nice. We were able to keep our supplies and firewood out of the weather. Each spot also has a fire ring and a barbque pit. Some of the firerings have grills on them as well. The pads are paved and in decent shape that are long and flat. We had a waterview spot that sits on a ridge overlooking the lake. You could tie a boat off and walk up, but it's probably a good 100 yards downhill to the water.

The lake is small and we did see a couple of fishing boats out and about. I'm not sure how busy this lake gets during the summer, but with just a 30 minutes drive, I might have to check it out this NOTICE NO TREES

next summer.

The fishing area lost it's fishing dock. So, we just fished from the bank. There are stairs down to the fishing area. The park also has a two lane boat ramp with a very steep angle.

Pros

- 30 minutes door to door

- Fantastic picnic area covered shelter....almost like a small cabin.

- several double RV spots....good for camping with other families.

- nice waterview spots of Lake Georgetown.

Cons

- Lack of shade for summer camping.

- Hiking Trail very short.

NOTICE NO FISHING DOCK

State Fair of Texas - Fair Grounds RV lot

State Fair Park Grounds

Dallas, TX
Texas vs OU Weekend
October 16 -18, 2009


With a family of six, it's hard to travel and stay in just one hotel room. Booking two hotel rooms during Texas-OU weekend, can get quite expensive. So, when a buddy of mine decided to take his RV and not mess with hotels, he had my attention. Turns out, he did his homework, and we set out on a new adventure that could turn into a new tradition. His plan was so smart, that we had another family join as well.

The State Fair RV lot is just a 5 minute tram ride to the front gates. Yep, no taxis or bumper to bumper hour long traffic jams.

The State Fair RV lot is well protected with around the clock security and with hundreds of high end (million dollar?) custom RVs.

I was a little worried about camping in this part of Dallas. But it turned out great. The only scare I had was with a couple of young drunk OU fans that wanted to rumble very late one night and it really wasn't much of a scare.


The fair ground lot only had electrical hookups so I filled up with water at Cedar Hills State Park.

The kids had a great time at the fair. They rode most of the rides, sampled most of the fried food (State Fair tradition) and enjoyed some of the livestock shows.

The Longhorns won the game. They beat the gooners in an ugly game. So, Mom & Dad had a great time at the fair as well!

Pros
- Around the clock security
- very friendly crowd (even some of the OU people)
- no taxis, hotels, or traffic. A little traffic getting to the gate and getting our spots (but the que went fast).
- Close to the fair ground gates (short tram ride)

Cons
- Some sections didn't have electrical hookups so some RVs had downlevel noisy generators running.
- We left early to avoid the que. So, we didn't experience any line, but I imagine there was one later in the day when people were leaving.
- no water hookups or dumps station.

Cedar Hill State Park

Cedar Hill State Park
Cedar Hill, TX (outside of Dallas)
Oct 15, 2009



Sorry no pictures for this campsite. We only spend several hours here on our trip to the Texas State Fair. We were caravaning with two other RVers and wanted to arrive on the Fair Grounds as early as possible. The fair ground RV gates opened at 7:00 a.m., so instead of driving all night we decided to leave Austin early, spend the night outside of Dallas at this State Park and wake up early and take the twenty minute drive to the fair.

We had a few hiccups, but the plan worked well. The only downside was not being able to explore this gigantic state park. We didn't even unhook our RVs, just hooked up power. We arrived right when the gates were closing and left before sunrise. We all had paid reservations and called ahead to report that we were on our way and were going to be close to arriving at closing time. Rather then mess with any paperwork, they just waved us in.

This park has over 300 camping sites and they all have water and electric. There are four sections with about 50-70 spots in each. We stayed in the Lakeview camping area. We were not able to see much of the park or even Joe Pool Lake. However, the RV spot was a decent sized paved and level pad. It had a covered picnic table area down an embankment behind the pad. Each spot was large and had lots of privacy. We couldn't see if our fellow RVers and they had the spots next to us on each side.


I can't give this park a rating since we didn't get to see much of it.

Pros
Close to Dallas

Huge park with over 300 camping sites

Large spots with lots of privacy

Covered picnic tables

Close to Walmart and gas stations

Lake LBJ

Lake LBJ

Sunrise Beach, TX

Labor Day Weekend

2009



This is a great lake for exploring and water sports.

We have friends that live right on the water in a nice size

protected cove. The waterskiing and wakeboarding is excellent early in the day. However, there are a lot of tubers and jet skis

that tear up the water and can make the lake rather busy (escpecially on holiday weekends : )



Horseshoe Bay is on this lake and is known for it's golf courses and beautiful homes. Up river, by Kingsland, the Llano and Colorado river merge to form the main section of the lake. The Llano can get shallow quick so we don't venture to far up from the Kingsland Llano bridge. On the Colorado side however, you can travel for several miles until you get close to the Inks Lake dam. Then it gets very shallow with lots of granite rocks (prop killers). Don't worry both river are very well marked. You'll know your close to the end with all of the hazzard bouys.



My kids love two things about this lake (other then there best friends live out here). First of all, the love the water temperature compared to our normal boating lake, Lake Austin. It is a lot warmer then Lake Austin, but not hot like Bastrop or Sommerville. The second thing is the Sunrise Beach sand bar. My kids love to play ball, dig and build sand castles on the sand bar. It's a nice place for the adults to stop and rest as well. It offers

good people / boat watching and can get quite busy on the holidays. I always seem

to have problems setting up on the beach. I don't like to completely beach my boat and I worry about getting stuck with all the incoming pounding wakes. Two anchors help, but the channel can get busy and cause lots of waves. I wish it was a no wake zone so those anchored wouldn't have to worry so much.




Pros

Not too far from Austin (80 minutes)

Constant level lake

Well Marked - but can be difficult to navigate at night

Water temp and lack of hydrilla

Great exploring

Sand Bar


Cons

80 minute drive

Very little RV/ Tent camping offered on this lake.

Sand Bar needs a "no wake zone"

Water patrol loves to do randowm stops. Make sure you have all your gear in order.