Opening a Texas State Park After a Hurricane

We arrived at BrazosBend State Park October 9.  This will be our “home” until the end of January.  The park is a 30 minute drive from Houston and is comprised of around 5,000 acres.  It is home to the American alligator. This nature habitat provides homes to many other animals, birds, insects and even fish.  We have been here many times with our family as it is close to Sweeny and all of our memories from here are great.  It’s a busy park!  So it is pretty strange to drive in to a park that has been closed to the public for a month and probably won’t open for another month.  You see, the park experienced about 16 feet of water during Hurricane Harvey. So as you can imagine, there is a lot of work to do.

We are impressed first of all by the number of park hosts that are here.  There are about 10 families here.  We, along with 2 other families, are located in the “overflow” area. There are 2 camping loops and each loop has 2 families. The maintenance yard has 2 families. And then the Hale Lake day use has 1 family.  Plus on Tuesday and Thursday, the Brazos Bend Volunteers show up to work.  So they are fortunate here to have a lot of varied talent to help them with all the tasks ahead of them.

They take safety seriously here. We were given a thorough orientation and before you can get on a lawnmower, for example, you have to go through a proficiency process.  So needless to say, Ron has been getting proficient on things like mowers, tractor and chain saws.  I am just happy to help in the office when needed but really do enjoy getting out and picking up sticks and storm debris, putting out ant killer, painting or blowing the autumn leaves. These outside chores give me great opportunities for bird watching and alligator watching.  It’s sad the park is closed to the public, but wow……..it is a really great opportunity to get out here, get on trails that we have never been on before, hear just how noisy nature is without all the people noise, and see the park through the eyes of our future visitors who are chomping at the bit to get back in the park – but what will their expectations be and will we meet them with all the repairs that have been needed?

The largest task has been power washing.  The Brazos River for those of you that don’t know, is a red muddy river after the rain.  Look at this picture of the water line in the trees. You can still tell there is red mud on the tree trunks.

Are you able to see where the flood water line on the trees is?

So all the picnic tables, once they were retrieved, had to be power washed. The cement. The shelters. The playgrounds. There are many foot bridges and fishing piers and observation towers and decks. Posts. Signs.

The dining hall and their one cabin and all their shelters had to have sheet rock removed, wood, appliances, etc. All of the electric pedestals in the camping loops had to be cleaned and restored. Signs had to be replaced or repaired. Trees, sticks, limbs, lily pads made a mess everywhere. It has to be cleaned up.

Can you even see the John Deere gator under all this debris?

You get a feel now for what it takes to recover a park after a natural disaster like this. As a volunteer in the state park systems, to get your full hook up site, you have to volunteer a minimum of 25 hours per week per household.  Most of these folks donate much more than that and because of that, the park will be reopening Tuesday, November 7!  Yippee! 

Here are a few pictures of what you will experience if you come visit this great state park!

 

Beautiful oak trees in front of 40 acre lake.

Absolutely a best place to go bird watching. I think they are ready for the park to reopen too

Check out the sunset reflection on Elm Lake.

You may not see Lucy with her Astros colored hair, but we were blessed by her visit!

Lucy took this picture of the trail we hiked.

Our daughter Liz and her daughter Lucy at 40 acre lake.

Our "tree huggers"!

Check out that laughter!

Happy times!

In case you don't see it, it's an alligator!

American Alligator

Check out the size of this alligator!

Turtles!

Birds everywhere!

See the debris from the flood on the bench?

In between getting settled in here at the park, we had 2 fun weekends!  One was a Halloween weekend at Splashway in Sheridan. It was a great family and friend weekend.

Riley, Lucy and Aiden planting pumpkins with the magic potion!

Check out that magic potion you water the seeds in with.

Making ghosts during arts and crafts.

Riley, our step great granddaughter!

Liz and Lucy, the Riveters!!!

Our very special family - Riley, Liz and Lucy, Amy and Aiden

Aiden and Riley in their costumes.

Liz and Lucy, the Queen of Hearts

Well, I'll be.  Would you check out how fast those pumpkin seeds grew over night????

Aiden has to flex his muscles with his pumpkin.

Another weekend was a work weekend at our daughter Amy and husband James’ deer lease near Inks Lake in the hill country. They bought a small building to use as their deer camp cabin. Ron was needed to get the electricity in it.  Then we insulated it and put up paneling and Amy did a little nesting in it.  Looks great!  We parked the motorhome at RockawayRV Park – which is a really great RV park on the Colorado river at the northern tip of Inks Lake. We will be back to this park. Fun!

Really nice park, right on the water.

Sunset on the deer lease.

Dinner out! Love James and Amy, our youngest daughter.

Had a large time beating the guys in shuffle board.

Amazing what some cool looking paneling can make a metal building look like.

Even built bed frames.

We have also enjoyed at separate times Aiden and Lucy for overnight guests. That’s the good thing about being here. It’s in a good location, half-way between each of them.

Until next time, happy trails!

Wrapping Up the Great Alaska Adventure!

This post will wrap up our Alaska trip. It’s a little late in coming, but we ended our trip earlier to help time our arrival back to our home area to start assisting with Hurricane Harvey clean-up efforts.  And if that wasn’t enough, we also made the decision to move from our fifth wheel to a motorhome!  So it’s been a busy month!

Day 119, August 28

We traveled today to Black Sandy State Park, located on Hauser Lake near Helena MT.  It is beautiful!  It’s a little smoky from the fires and our first time of having temps in the 90’s since we left Arizona back in May! It was a beautiful drive over with lots of wheat fields. We are also a little calmer now knowing that our daughters and families got safely evacuated from the hurricane.  Tomorrow our friends Donna and Greg will continue on to Yellowstone while we start heading south for Texas. We have been to Yellowstone numerous times so it wasn’t a hard decision for us to not go. But we were looking forward to visiting with park ranger friends that are working there this summer.

On our walk saw this beautiful deer!

Day 120, August 29

Our route today is taking us through Billings MT and into Sheridan WY. We stopped at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, near Crow Agency in Montana.  We were so humbled going here. #1 – Remembering history and Custer’s last stand and #2 viewing the Custer National Cemetery, which is like Arlington – where there is a final resting place for generations of those who served in the U S Armed Forces. The cemetery reached capacity in 1978.

 

A beautiful smoky sunrise.

Typical scenery in this part of the country.

Along the trail you see Indian memorials, along with 7^th Calvary markers and horses, memoralizing June 25 – 26, 1876 and the fateful Battle of the Little Bighorn.  This area memoralizes one of the last armed efforts of the Northern Plains Indians to preserve their way of life.  263 soldiers and attached personnel of the U.S. Army, including Lt. Col. George A. Custer, met death at the hands of Lakota and Cheyenne warriors.

 

Visitor Center

One of those places you always studied about.

Part of the Indian Memorial

Where they found the horses buried.

We landed tonight at Ranchester WY – Lazy R Campground.  It’s a good stop. $32 for a full hookup. Quiet. Watching doves and hearing birds – sounds we haven’t really heard in a while. Saw pictures of our daughter’s house – it looks safe although the water is about an inch from the door. So much flooding……

 Day 121 – August 30

It’s a pretty day for driving and we’re getting out of the smoke! Seeing lots of antelope. We need to come back to this area and spend time here.  There are a lot of historical spots in this area that we need to visit.  We are staying tonight west of Cheyenne at a great state park – Curt Gowdy.  Water and electric for $22.  Back home the rivers are still rising. Ron’s brother’s house has flooded. Wharton and Boling have experienced horrible, horrible flooding.  Still a mandatory evacuation going on.

Day 122 – August 31

Today will be a travel day through Colorado. I25 through Denver and at 10 am there is still horrible traffic!  Finally let up once we got through Colorado Springs.  Staying the night tonight at Trinidad State Park.  We have a really great campsite!  Enjoyed watching the sun go down on our lake view. We were busy once we got here – needed an oil change and groceries. They are still projecting river flooding to start in Sweeny tomorrow.  Found us a campsite close to home and family once we get there in a few days.

Day 123 – September 1

Crossed Raton Pass NM and here we are in the Texas panhandle in Snyder at a very quiet campground. Stopped at a Mexican food buffet in Dumas – good and authentic. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset and the quiet here. Praying for friends and family at home. Only one family member flooded, but many friends have and will have a long road ahead of them.

Yay! Back on home turf!

Sure have missed those Texas sunsets!

Day 124 – September 2

Up and at them early. A very long day. Met Ron’s twin Don and wife Rene’ in Marble Falls to pick up Ron’s mom. They had evacuated to Austin, but she wanted to change locations and go to where her brother and sister live and we were headed to the same location. Stocked up on groceries. So many of the gas stations here in the hill country did not have fuel which was crazy. We got to Schulenburg RV Park around 4, got set up, took Grandma to her brother’s and headed to go see daughter Amy and family. Got to meet our new step great grandson Marshall. So glad everyone was safe! Our other daughter Liz was safe in East Texas – just really missed not getting to see her and Lucy today!

And a Texas sunrise!

How about some blackened halibut and some fried halibut while everyone's evacuated?

We only find poppyseed rolls here in the hill country!

Some of the water we had to drive through.

Look at Aiden!

Spoiling those grandkids! 

Thus ends our great Alaska Adventure of 2017. Great travels for sure!  We traveled 15, 389 miles on this road trip.  It’s hard to say what was the best part of the trip. There was just too many best parts! We will relive these adventures for a long time.

Here are a few pictures I snapped of Harvey’s aftermath.  We got settled into an RV site here in Sweeny. While Ron helped friends tear out sheetrock I did a lot of cooking to keep everyone nourished and energized for the tasks at hand.

Water across the San Bernard River bridge. This is why our trailer would have been swept away if kiddos wouldn't have moved it.

San Bernard river

Stinky mess. Got to be where you couldn't maneuver down the street because of so much debris.

Ruined cotton fields.

We had our little trailer sold before we ever got back home. So thankful that our son-in-law was able to move our big 5^th wheel up to higher ground. Come to find out, it wouldn’t have made it. Where we left it at (where it’s never flooded before) had 5’ of water. Took us a day to move back in to the big one.

 

Sure was nice to move back into our larger home!

And almost a month later, here we are in our new home!  A 2017 Newmar Dutch Star diesel pusher.  Wow!!! Drives like a dream but most importantly – it really feels like home!  Very sturdy, roomy and just has those features that make it comfortable. Why a motorhome?  Well, for the longest we always said – no way, those aren’t for us.  But the way we travel we think it’s a perfect fit.  We are able to tow our jeep behind it. A jeep makes for a better off road adventure than that big dually truck for sure.  We did our homework, talked to a lot of folks that were owners of various makes and models which was so helpful to eliminate certain manufacturers.  Swapping over required another big purge – which we really needed to do anyway. 

Inside of new motorhome.

Aiden helping his great grandma sew a pillow for his mom's birthday.

Spending time with Lucy!

And the outside of our new home!

We will be heading to a really great Texas State Park in October – Brazos Bend to volunteer through January. The park was severely damaged from the hurricane so we will ultimately be assisting with clean-up. They hope to re-open in November and we will most likely be park hosting then. I will be sharing adventures from there soon! Until we get there, we have a couple of fun family weekends and a whirlwind of those pesky doctor appointments that you put off until you’re back in your home area.