Journey to Livingston

Sunday, October 8, 2017

Friday we left Kerrville for Kyle where we will stayed overnight to see our grandchildren play in the high school marching band and to get in a quick visit with my daughter.  The band was great and the new uniforms up to date and smart looking.  We will return on the 20^th and 21at for a fund raiser dinner, another football game and a chance to hear the band perform again .  Don’t get to see the kids much during October as they have competitions on the weekends and are so busy going here and there.  Hopefully in November and December we will have a chance to visit when they are around.

We left yesterday morning heading to Livingston with the intention of staying at the Elks Lodge in Huntsville, about 160 miles north and east of the Austin area.  Arrived at the Elks to find it was down a narrow dirt road, the grounds were grassy but very bumpy and lumpy and the only sites available were 15 amp.  You can’t get the A/C on with that.  After some consultation, we decided to try Plan B which was a private campground in the area.  We were informed they were full due to some events going on in Huntsville today so on to Plan C with a phone call to the Escapees Park in Livingston (50 miles further on) to see if we could check in a day early.  With an answer to the affirmative, we drove on, checked in and set up. 

The set up in itself was not the easy one we expected at an Escapees Park.  The grounds here are well trampled gravel with lots of dirt in between from all the rains they have set next to a grassy area with a picnic table.  After several tries at finding a more level area within this nice long spot, putting wood blocks under the front wheels and adding pads under the front jacks, we finally have things level but our entry steps required our little step stool to get to the bottom step.  Whew!  It was not an easy setup in the low 90’s temp with high humidity. 

Our dinner plan was to eat at a local family restaurant.  It too was an entertaining experience.  The restaurant was very pleasant and food good home style.  As we waited for our food and ate our meal, we were entertained by the couple sitting behind us.  The lady was quite elderly and may have had some dementia and he was either her son, grandson or nephew in his late 40’s who apparently had been in prison and was awaiting a court date with a judge for perhaps another visit.  He kept telling the lady about conditions at the prison, about not having salt and pepper and sugar, only having a spoon to eat with that he was responsible for washing it each day over the toilet (gross) and keeping track of it, that breakfast was at 3:30 in the morning and lunch at 2:00 in the afternoon and about who could or could not visit him based on whether they had warrants for arrest, tickets, etc.  The poor lady just could not seem to understand and kept asking questions and suggesting that the prison should let him attend church, have special Sunday clothes, etc. With no first hand experience, we were not sure how much of what he said was actually true.  What a hoot!

Tomorrow we will post a few pictures from the area and our visit to Lake Livingston, a large reservoir in the area today.