Rally Time = Reunion Time in Santo, TX

Thursday, April 3rd, 2014

First, a little back-story. Since our last trip, Mammoth has been home, and getting a variety of little upgrades and maintenance done. We were able to install a UCamp Products LED light strip just under the awning (I won this at the Dallas RV show!). We added Hatchlift piston arms to the front compartment, so that we no longer have to clip the door open... thus, we no longer worry about it crashing on our heads. We finally installed the propane changeover detector, (we bought in December,) so we'll know when our tank needs refilling. We added slideout flippers from Heartland, so that our slide seals would "flip" to their correct locations... we've had issues with them not doing so near the top of the slides. I mounted some of our souvenir bumper stickers and postcards to balsa wood, to put up as decor inside. We switched out our showerhead and faucet to a new single lever handle model by Dura faucet, and the Oxygenics RV BodySpa with SmartPause Button. I also washed the Mammoth, and added Eternabond tape to the slideout roof's front edge of the living slide, which was needing it -- I had done this to 2 other slides a while back. The other project was to install a new keyless RVLock, their newest version 4.0. I was able to get a new one, with two remotes -- a good deal -- via the Heartland Owners Club. Our original one has always been slow and unpredictable, and the company was interested in making sure owners are happy with their products.

Oxygenics Shower Head

LED Awning lights cable install down the awning arm

Back to the trip! We loaded up and had the Mammoth ready to go on Thursday, when Tony got out of school. There were severe storms predicted for the NTX area, so we were careful to keep an eye on the radar on my phone and listen to KRLD, the news station that is very good at keeping folks informed with traffic and weather "on the 8's".

On the road again!

We headed down I-20, and it was windy. We could see the storms building in the distance as we traveled, and managed to just miss a severely-warned storm as it crossed south of Ft. Worth. We just got enough sprinkles to mess up the truck. Meanwhile, larger storms were forming north of DFW, and causing baseball and softball-sized hail, damaging winds, and later, a possible tornado in Hunt County.

We arrived at Coffee Creek RV park near Santo, TX about 5:30. While I was registering, a couple asked if I had ever been to Williams Arizona. I said "Why yes!"  Turns out, they were a couple we met there, at the RV Park, 4 years ago. They had a fairly new Heartland Greystone back then, and still have it. We sat and visited quite a while back then, that was our second trip ever with our ElkRidge. WOW! Turns out, this RV Park is their "home".  It was great to visit with them again.

We got set up, and continued to watch menacing clouds -- luckily they were miles away and moving away from us. After we were nearly set up, friends Malcolm and Valerie stopped by, and so did our friend Jay. We visited a while, then went in to eat dinner. After dinner, we walked around the park to see who all was there, and visit some more. We're excited to see many of our old friends! It's like a family reunion, seeing ones you haven't seen in 6 months, a year, some longer than that, from all over the country, and around TX.

Storms for someone else!

wow!

Rows of Heartlands  -- looking towards the storms at sunset

One thing I discovered as soon as I let the cats out of their carrier -- I forgot their food! So, luckily, Valerie and Malcolm have a cat, so they graciously gave us some cat food to make sure the boys didn't stave until we could get some, tomorrow.