We had much warmer, summer-like weather yesterday as the thermometer hit 83 degrees. I spent hours on my laptop trying book places to stay in The Woodlands area of Texas and also on the gulf coast in Rockport. When we know we want to be in a particular area at a certain time, I like to book ahead. When we’re traveling, I like to have open dates as well to allow spontaneity.

Our plan was to arrive in The Woodlands on May 14th and stay through the 18th so we can meet up with Allen Hutchinson and his family when he competes in the Ironman Triathlon there. Of course, the Ironman competition brings a large number of visitors to the area and finding an RV site close to the course was impossible. I didn’t book it earlier, because some of our plans were still up in the air.

I ended up finding a swanky RV resort in north Houston, about 12 miles from The Woodlands. This resort is more expensive than our usual choices, but we’ll make do. Finding a place in Rockport was very time consuming. There are 36 RV parks in the area. I looked at websites, then found each park on Google Earth. Many of the parks I looked at appeared to be dirt sites with lots of trees. I rejected these. I don’t want to be in a dirt site for two weeks on the gulf coast. Rain is likely at some point and a dirt park could end up a mud hole. I’m also wary of too many trees close to a site. Trees can cause damage or at the very least, block satellite signals taking out our TV reception.

I found what appeared to be an ideal park. It showed sites with huge concrete pads – all sites over 70′ long and 40′ wide. I called them and was told they were completely booked through September! I worked my way down my list and heard the same thing from a few more places. This was worrisome. Our friends John and Sharon (On the Road of Retirement) told us about a place at Copano Bay in Rockport that they said lacks amenities but wasn’t a bad park. It also has a dock and is right on an inlet called Salt Lake which is part of Copano Bay.

When I phoned the park, they were very accommodating. They found a site for us and also blocked a smaller site directly across from our site to drop the trailer in. We’re in business! We’ll arrive there on May 18 and stay two weeks, departing on June 1st. We plan to spend some time visiting with my middle daughter Jamie who lives with her family in Robstown, TX.

We’re unsure of our route from there, but we think we want to make stops in Memphis, St. Louis and Des Moines on our way to Minneapolis. Donna will have a half day of work in Des Moines, producing another round of cleaning videos for Better Homes and Gardens. Whichever route we take, I’m sure we’ll find fun and adventure along the way.

I watched most of the Detroit Red Wings versus Tampa Bay Lightning NHL playoff game. Neither team has won two games in a row in this best of seven series and last night was no exception as Tampa Bay prevailed. The series is tied 3-3 with game seven in Tampa Bay Wednesday night.

We left during the third period of the game and took an Uber car to North Park. My daughter Shauna and her roommate Cat had invited us to dinner. They prepared a meal from Blue Apron. Blue Apron.com is an online company that creates recipes, packages the ingredients (you can choose enough for two or four people) and delivers it in a refrigerated box. Each meal comes with instructions and most meals can be prepared in 35 minutes or less.

Cat and Shauna slaving over the stove

Cat and Shauna are graduating from Cal Western School of Law this Friday. Cat’s mom, Lil, came here from Hawaii for the graduation and joined us along with Shauna and Cat’s other roommate, Sara, for dinner. The food was great and the conversation interesting. We stayed until it was close to 9pm before we had another Uber ride home.

Corned beef-style flank steak with braised cabbage and potatoes

More family will be here by Thursday for the graduation ceremony. We booked a room for my step-dad, Ken, in Mission Valley. Shauna’s sisters, mother, uncles and cousins are coming. Cat has a number of family members arriving as well.

Today’s weather forecast calls for another sunny day with the high temperature approaching 80 degrees. I plan to play pickleball this afternoon. Donna and I are thinking about buying a portable pickleball net so we can continue to play as we travel.