San Angelo, TX

By: Kevin

We started out at another campground, but after 2 weeks and a muddy sewage mess we decided to move to the San Angelo KOA. While not as green as the last campground, the lack of sewage at our site was a pleasant change. The kids enjoyed the camp playground, pool, mini-golf, and little pedal vehicles. We all made use of the nearby 2-mile loop of road that the locals regularly used for walking/running/biking/exercising.

We also discovered a nice metro park along the river in downtown San Angelo complete with walking trails and a visitor center. The kids learned that San Angelo has sheep sculptures all around the city that are painted in all different ways. We picked up a listing of where each sheep was located, and the kids loved to go “sheep hunting” around the city.

While in Daytona Beach over the winter season we had re-coated the RV roof with liquid EPDM rubber. Now that we again had some free time we wanted to remove the air conditioner from the roof, clean and coat the roof under it that was previously inaccessible, and re-secure the unit on the roof. Our plan was flawless. We had a new roof seal for the A/C, we had the liquid rubber, and we had a dry Texas day with a 0% chance of rain according to the NOAA weather center which was 1/2 mile down the road from the campground. Perfect!

We removed the unit, cleaned, coated, and allowed the rubber to start to dry. Since it had been a beautiful day with clear blue skies we opted to leave the unit off for the night to allow the coating to cure a little longer. We were eating dinner (with a 2-foot square hole in our roof) when Pie commented that she thought she saw lightening outside. I looked outside, but saw nothing, so we continued eating. Again she commented that she saw lightening, and I heard a very low rumble that one may POSSIBLY contribute to thunder in the distance. I made a check of the local radar map, and much to my dismay saw a large thunderstorm quickly approaching our RV.

It was now All Hands On Deck. I went to the new RV next door and knocked on the door, introduced myself, and asked our newly-acquainted neighbor for assistance getting the A/C re-seated before our RV became an expensive rain gauge. Heather and I were on the roof and our neighbor was inside our RV helping to guide it into the proper location. We got the bolts tightened down and were just walking into the RV when the hail and then rain came down. And man did it pour! It pounded the roof, and we could see the waves of water blowing across the campground in the haze of the security light by the office. We literally got the unit secured just in time. As for the weather forecast center….we never really trusted them again while in TX, even if they were only 1/2 mile down the road from us.

For any of you that were wondering, once the EPDM rubber is applied to a dry roof, it is instantly waterproof, so we did not need to re-reseal the roof after the storm.

San Angelo is also home to a railroad museum along an active railroad track. We, and our friends from Houston, visited the museum and climbed through a locomotive and caboose that were on display along the side of the museum.

In Texas, for those of you who don’t know, the state police wear Stetson cowboy hats as part of their official uniform. While in TX, we figured we needed to see what all the hype was about with these hats, so we gave them a try. We look pretty good if you ask me.

Another absolutely amazing place is the Santa Fe Western and Rustic Furniture store in San Angelo. They have a stuffed horse right inside the door that starts talking when you walk by and made my wife just about jump out of her socks. We all love this place as it is filled with so many amazing and interesting things. It also had a free margarita machine that dispensed alcoholic and non alcoholic margarita mix. If we every have a normal sized house again, Heather has her heart set on getting a dining room table from here.

I really did enjoy our time in Texas, and plan to return this coming year. We are declaring Texas as our legal home, if nothing but on paper, as we like their home school laws and nursing licensing system.