Month: March 2017

We steered Sherman out of Ft. Worth on the fourth morning of our RV road trip.  Our destination was Goodfellow AFB Recreation Camp in San Angelo, TX which was about five hours away.  This RV Park had no reserved spots available, so it was first come, first serve.  We had called ahead and learned that there were a few spaces available at the time we called, but we moved along briskly in order to have a place for Sherman, our Cruise America RV, to spend the night.

By now we were becoming comfortable with the nuances of driving a motor home. The most difficult aspect of driving a vehicle of this type was becoming accustomed to driving with only side view mirrors to observe the traffic around you. The mirrors were large and easy to use and the wide angle mirrors were helpful as well.  Nevertheless, for the first couple of days, I felt like my head was on a swivel and I was constantly casting glances from side to side.

 There was one other factor that took some getting used to and that was driving in the wind. Sherman acted much like a big kite when the wind was blowing from the side…and it seemed like the wind was always blowing. This required some serious concentration at times and always required two hands on the steering wheel.  At one point when crossing the open plains, a gust blew us onto the shoulder of the road. That experience was a bit unsettling. By the end of the early days of this trip, I felt the effects of holding Sherman to a straight line and was usually a bit fatigued. However, as mentioned above, I was getting used to it and just settled in on a speed of no more than 65 mph and used cruise control whenever possible.  

When we arrived in San Angelo, we went first to the Air Force Base and not to the Recreation Camp a few miles away.  There was no Pilot/Flying J nearby so Sherman needed fuel and we needed a few things for our kitchen. Goodfellow is a very large base and the employees and airmen were leaving for the day as we arrived, so traffic caught us at an inopportune time—remember we did not have reservations. We gassed up, (love BX gas prices) turned Sherman around and headed out.

Upon arrival at the Recreation Camp, the camp host, a very friendly gentleman named Ralph, greeted us warmly. He lived in a huge fifth wheel trailer at one end of the Camp. Ralph said he didn’t think he had any spaces left.  Our hearts sank, it was getting late in the day, and we didn’t have a plan B.

Ralph went back to his trailer and grabbed a clipboard, then headed off to the camp office, telling us to wait while he checked a few things out. We endured several long minutes of sitting by Sherman immersed in hope.  Ralph returned and asked us how long we would be staying and we replied that we were there for one night only. Our luck won out.  Ralph had one space left.  It turned out that, of the four campsites at Goodfellow that can be reserved, a camper making the reservation for one of them was delayed by a day.  Sherman filled that space very quickly.

Before we connected the utilities, we got some directions from Ralph for a nearby place to grab food for take-out.  We didn’t feel like cooking. Ralph suggested we give Packsaddle Barbeque a try since it was only about a mile down the road.  We had been looking forward to some Texas barbeque so we were all in.

Packsaddle was a storefront operation in a strip center. When we arrived there were no customers, but two very friendly young ladies greeted us and made suggestions.  Helen (adorable wife) wanted to try sliced brisket—something we don’t get in Tennessee, and I ordered a pulled pork plate.  Both meals came with baked beans and cole slaw. We piled back into Sherman and returned to the campground, hooked up, and settled in for the night. Since we had a microwave oven in Sherman’s kitchen, we decided to take a walk around the campground then return to warm up dinner.

I want to give an overview of the Recreation area for our Military Living readers. The Recreation Camp is a very nice park. It only has 20 spaces, but all have electric, water, and sewer hookups. It has a great shower facility that is very clean and well maintained. (we took full advantage the next morning). There is also a nice washer/dryer facility that sits inside a reading and rec room with many books, videos, and puzzles to browse or read while you wait for your laundry to finish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The campground sits alongside Lake Nasworthy, a pleasant lake for fishing or boating. There is a marina and a marina office for boat rentals although this was closed on the day we visited. We sat on one of the benches beside the marina to regroup from a day of driving.  This was a welcome break.

After our Barbeque dinner (just ok, not great), we listened to music on the MacBook I brought along. If there is anything to criticize about this camp, it is that, while Wi-Fi is available, it is very unreliable. We finally gave up, but that was not really a big deal. We could remain disconnected for one day.

We awoke around sunrise and walked to the mini mart outside the gate for ice and coffee. Unfortunately, we did not have time to browse through the town of San Angelo. We needed to make our way to White Sands Missile Range because, like Goodfellow, there were no reservation sites available. I’m told that San Angelo is a great place to explore but we’ll have to come back on our next trip.

We did make one pit stop after we hit the road and it just happened that we stopped in front of a historical marker pointing to Castle Gap, a break in the mountains where the first cattle drives came through in the 1800’s. I did some research later and learned that the early drives through this gap opened the trail for future drives from Texas to Montana. The stories about these drives later served as the basis for one of my all-time favorite novels, Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. Legend is that eight different gold shipments were lost by settlers while venturing through the Gap, and treasure hunters still work the mountains in search of lost gold.

Not even the possibility of finding gold could convince Sherman to drive through Castle Gap. He preferred instead to continue Easin’ Along.

Please come back next week–White Sands, NM.

It was the third day of our RV retirement road trip which we labeled “Taking Sherman to the Sea”. After dodging a storm and having the luck of obtaining complimentary rooms at Harrah’s Horseshoe Hotel and Casino in Bossier City, LA, we were fresh and ready for a day on the road.

Our destination was the Navy Lodge in Fort Worth, Texas. We had been unable to obtain a spot for the Sherman, Our Cruise America RV, along our planned travel route so we booked a room at the Navy Lodge instead.  Our experience with Navy Lodges has always been excellent and this one was no different.  It seemed brand new and was exceptionally clean.  It was well staffed, had the usual great breakfast, and a stunning view of a lake to the front of the Lodge.  In addition, the rest of the trip would be all camping so why not have one last night of fresh sheets and someone else’s cooking?

Our drive would take us from Shreveport to Fort Worth by way of Corsicana, Texas. Our reason for the detour involved food…namely fruitcakes. If you’ve ever eaten a fruitcake, the chances are very good that it was baked by Collin Street Bakery in Corsicana.  We were on our way to receive a VIP tour of this world-famous facility.

Collin Street Bakery was founded in 1896 by a German baker and promoted heavily by a local businessman.  The bakery did a lively business in Corsicana where prosperity reigned after oil was discovered in the region.  In 1914 members of the Ringling Brothers Circus entered the bakery after a performance and sent fruitcakes to family and friends all over the world. Thus began a reputation for taste and quality that was known far and wide.

The bakery was sold to a small group of investors in 1947 who continued to enhance the quality of the products and grow the business.  A close relative of Helen (adorable wife) is married to a direct descendant of those investors and is now employed by the bakery. It was he who was taking us on a tour.

Will, our tour guide was busy when we arrived, so we treated ourselves to a great lunch of soup and sandwiches made on bakery bread while we waited. The bread was bacon and cheese bread and was like no bread I’ve ever tasted. It was so good I bought a loaf to place in Sherman’s pantry for the trip. We browsed through the bake shop for more goodies after lunch.

Will arrived and greeted us warmly. He walked us through a photo display and gave us some of the plant histories that I mentioned above.  He also explained that fruitcakes were primarily produced in the months leading up to Christmas and that this day was not one scheduled for production. Therefore, we would not get to see the plant in action (or get covered in flour). Nevertheless, we were required to wear netting over our hair and we were not allowed to touch any of the cooking equipment in order to preserve the sanitary environment of the production area.

During the baking season, Collin Street Bakery produces over 1.5 million fruitcakes and ships them to approximately 200 countries. The number of employees grows to over 600 in that period and they do everything from boxing cakes to cleaning the equipment, to answering the never-ending onslaught of email and phone calls. I can only imagine that the pace would be wild although every aspect of the plant was designed to be extremely efficient.

At this time of the year, most of the activity is tied to the production of baked goods and candy for the five area stores.  We were allowed to view the entire plant except for the area devoted to the preparation of chocolate items which remains a well-guarded secret. The smell of the chocolate wafted through the cracks in the door and was somewhat torturous to a chocolate lover like me.

Our last stop was a trip to the call center where banks of phones were set up to handle the demand that would begin in a few months. Calls were coming in as we passed some ladies taking orders and answering questions in polite and somewhat hushed tones. Good customer service was being practiced.

Will needed to get back to work and we had to make your way to Fort Worth so it was time to go. Nevertheless, I couldn’t resist picking up a bag containing two dozen chocolate chunk cookies, a milk chocolate candy bar, and six pieces of chocolate brittle bark…I’m certain that Nutrisystem would give me some time off for good behavior. Sherman picked out an apricot fruitcake for himself.

Before we departed the area, we took the time to walk through downtown Corsicana, a small town about sixty miles south of Dallas. I would describe Corsicana as being just as I imagined it would be. Many of the buildings on Beaton Street were one story and had been built in decades past. I could see that this was once a bustling community at the time of the oil discoveries, but now most of the traffic had moved elsewhere and many of the shops that remained were small retail establishments, beauty salons, and my favorite business for browsing—second-hand stores.  Nevertheless, a great deal of charm still remained in this Texas town on a road less traveled.

We did have one objective in mind—we needed a coffee pot for Sherman.  Helen had picked one up at a thrift store before we left, but the pot fell apart on our first night in Montgomery and we needed a replacement.  We found a perfectly good Black and Decker in the second shop we visited at the very reasonable asking price of $8.00. We drove a hard bargain and got it down to $7.00.  The store owner confirmed that it worked and we proudly left with it.  We only needed it to last as far as California since Sherman was booked for a one-way trip and we were flying home leaving everything behind.

We went into several more stores and I found a few trinkets but managed to resist any big temptations. We noticed one very unique display along the sidewalks. Some organization had placed several old pianos in front of some of the stores and had done a great job of painting and decorating them. I took pictures of five of them for Easin’ Along readers to enjoy and they are included in the Picture gallery that follows this article. You can click here and click on the photos to begin the slideshow.

As we strolled toward Sherman we met a gentleman who was having a discussion with a lady in front of one of the stores. He introduced himself as a shop owner and knew right away that we were not locals. He tried to coax us into his store, but we told him we were afraid of running out of daylight before Sherman reached Fort Worth.  The fact that we were in a hurry mattered little as this gentleman was quite the talker and he wanted to know everything about our trip and about Sherman.

The lady in the group was telling everyone that she had just turned 90 and was showing off a clipping from the local paper that contained her picture plus a story about her birthday.  We congratulated her on the achievement and promised to hoist a cup in her honor once we reached Fort Worth. She certainly didn’t look her age, and I told her so.

Having made two new friends, we departed. We took our “new” coffee maker and placed it on the countertop in Sherman’s small kitchen along with the Collin Street goodies that would accompany our coffee.

We both agreed that on this day, RV living is as good as a loaded fruitcake…and we’ll joyfully continue Easin’ Along.