I stayed overnight on the gate with an out of service notice in my window since they were done needing a guard at that location and I was guarding our company equipment. The next morning, our support guys came to pick it up then I moved on to one of my membership campgrounds in New Waverly, TX. I highly recommend a stay at Timberlodge RV Park. They are outside of town where it is very quiet and peaceful. They have a clubhouse with kitchen, TV, laundry , pool table, satellite TV, and pool. The managers are wonderfully nice and easy to work with. From there, you can go see Lake Livingston to enjoy some fishing or boating, visit Escapees headquarters there and take a tour of their facilities as I did, or head on up to Huntsville to see the Sam Houston statue (largest statue of an American hero), the Texas Prison Museum with “Old Sparky”, and Hearts Veterans Museum. A little touristing in between gates makes a happy guard!

With some time on my hands, I also went grocery shopping and hit up Wal-Mart for some things. I visited several RV parts stores in the area. I also went to several thrift stores looking for a couch to replace my swivel chair. This 5th didn’t have a couch in it when I bought it and you really need either a sofa or a reclining chair, depending on your preference, to nap in and get your legs up when doing gate guarding.  I lucked out and found one that fit the spot in my slideout perfectly, is in great condition, isn’t ugly, and only cost $75. Happily, it also came with two strong, handsome young men to deliver it right to my rig.

I was off for 10 days and had started checking around with other companies for a new gate when I got the call from my company. A gate was opening on the other side of Texas (where I had come from for the first gate) and they needed me there by midnight as a favor to them. The race was on! I washed dishes and closed up the trailer as fast as I could. The ground was still wet making it interesting. I hitched up and drove for 8 hours through rush hour traffic, rain, and fog until finally I reached the new gate in Carrizo Springs in the dark. Thank goodness the crew hadn’t come in yet so I got to sleep through the night once I was setup.

This is a different kind of gate from my last one. It has a high fence all around and a real gate that must be kept locked and opened for each vehicle or group of vehicles. I had to improvise a rope system to keep one of the gates from being pushed out by the wind while unlocking them and to lessen the number of times I have to walk out on the cat walk over the cattle guard for safety. This time I have a bell dinger instead of a driveway monitor due to being too close to the busy highway which drives monitors crazy. To be sure I hear the bell and wake up, we had to drill a hole in my floor larger and run the ringer hose up through it. It’s a very busy gate but the guys are very nice and try to make it easier for me.

I have guarded my first gate in the rain now. Loads of fun… I grabbed a nearby board to use as a mud board then filled a plastic container next to it with water to wash my boots before stepping back into the RV. Sure could use a boot wiper too. At least I had rubber boots on board and ready for this.

If you only want to do it during the winter, be aware that there are now too many people with that idea so gates have become much harder to come by in the winter. Keep in mind also the weather in these states. Whether you are just playing and seeing the sites or working, don’t get caught in them without a NOAA weather radio for your safety.

Hondo is a pretty decent sized town with all the fast food joints, a Super Wal-Mart, and H-E-B grocery store which to my delight has similar prices to Wal-Mart and in several cases were cheaper believe it or not. It’s a nice place to spend some time and close to the fun in San Antonio.

Near Hondo is the town of Sabinal where I went to the Wild Hog Festival to dip my toe in the Texas culture. There were lots of food booths of course. I got my first smoked turkey leg there and it was delicious! There were rides for the kiddies, a climbing wall, and lots of things on sale. A school band performed a wonderful concert of Texas tunes in the pavilion followed by a karate demonstration by the local karate school.

The highlight, of course, is the greased hog chasing. All ages can participate in chasing one around a pen to catch it and have your partner put him in a burlap sack then drag it across a line in the pen. The fastest time wins. There were many surprises with some younger kids outdoing the older ones. A couple of the teams had to catch the hog several times before successfully getting it in the bag. The amount of chasing is limited to 3 minutes to keep the hogs from getting overheated. I was very glad I didn’t have to clean any of the clothes of the participants after as it got pretty dirty.

There is one local family who attends the festival every year. They get commemorative T-shirts specially made for the entire extended family before coming. It days make it easy to find each other in the crowd.

For more pics click here.

It comes with a metal bracket you can use to secure it to something nearby. I have both a 6 foot and a 30 foot vinyl covered wire straps to secure it close by or farther away. I found them and locks at Home Depot.

After several months of use, I am very happy with mine. It is lightweight. The lower profile and solid dome give it better protection from the wind. It takes up very little room in my RV when traveling. It is so nice to be able to put it outside and have it set itself up automatically. Much easier. I just place it in the general direction of the satellites and let it do its thing. When switching from one satellite to another it is often seamless. Once in a while I get a “No signal” screen for a few seconds when switching channels between satellites but it isn’t bothersome. The downside is it loses signal in any heavy rain, hail, or snowstorm so keep your DVDs handy for those rare nights. On the whole, I highly recommend them but wait for a sale.

If you have lots of money, there are numerous other attractions across from the Alamo such as Ripley’s Believe it or Not, a wild Tomb Raider ride, etc. The visitor’s center is also there so stop in and pickup brochures with coupons first. I preferred to walk along the River Walk. It is as beautiful as they say. There are lovely waterfalls, fountains, flora, Spanish style buildings, etc. on the River Walk. The boat ride on the river was well worth it and inexpensive. There are numerous places to eat just about anything under umbrellas on the walk. I chose to eat at the River Center Mall court which is also river side. The various stalls gave out yummy free samples. I finally settled on a huge plate of Chinese fried rice and chicken teriyaki for lunch. Local musicians provided Mexican music to entertain us while the tourists on the boats coming by snapped pictures. After lunch, I walked almost all the way back to my vehicle via the River Walk while checking out some of the tourist shops. It was a nice day.

If you want to see more of San Antonio, there are numerous ways to get around. There’s a water taxi on the river of course or you might try some of these other ways below.

For more pics click here.

The next morning I drove through the Texas hill country to Boerne, TX and the Top of the Hill RV Park. Again, more stinking wind. Grrrr! It caught my other bedroom window which I know was closed, pulled it open, and destroyed all the window hardware as well as the the old vinyl blind.

Sites at the RV park are level, wide, and long. They have a clubhouse, laundry, pool, spa, and billiard room. The staff are very nice and helpful.  It wasn’t cheap to stay there but I was able to get at least a couple of days with Passport America and it was close to the office of some people I needed to talk to. One thing I started learning there is to park my RV so that the sewer connection is halfway between my two dump openings whenever possible. I can leave one hooked up and easily switch it to the other that way. Otherwise, I have to run more hose to dump the farther one or hook both up at the same time. I also learned that the Texas hill country is full of burrs. They kept coming into the house on my shoes and made it miserable and painful to walk around barefoot.

Boerne is a pretty good sized town with a Super Wal-Mart and Home Depot. I took full advantage of both and got a new aluminum blind for the bedroom (the window I have taped shut until I can get all the parts to fix it). Tweety’s RV Store is also there and pretty good. It’s close enough to San Antonio for some sightseeing which I did.

The next morning I checked in at the office again and found they now had a vacancy so I decided to stay and rest up for another day. After dumping my tanks, I took a walk on their little nature trail then worked out details and reservations for my next stop.

The next morning, I stopped in town for gas and propane. I also came across a Safeway market so I did some grocery shopping before heading out for the day. The wind was better but still a pain in the arse for driving. I decided not to push it and stopped in Las Cruces, NM. With another major wind storm and advisory predicted for the next day, I decided to stay over another day which worked out fine with the Passport America park I found there, Coachlight RV Park. They were very friendly and also have nice level pull thru sites along with lots of residents. It’s a decent park to stay when in the area and I would stay again. As soon as I parked, a woman came over to me to say hello neighbor. It turned out that she and her husband were parked next to me back in Willcox. LOL. After I got setup and secured for the night, we had a nice chat in their motorhome. They too were spending a couple days to sit out the next wind storm.

I rested the next day. It was too windy to go sightseeing and I didn’t want to unhitch for just a day.