Our first stop on our 2013 adventure is a short drive up I45 from south of Houston to Lake Conroe Thousand Trails near Willis, TX. We were just here in February when we took a short shake down trip with our camper. This is such a nice place. There’s an inlet of Lake Conroe right here on the property and lots of campsites. Some of the roads are gravel, but others are paved, although the pavement is in considerable need of repair. We’re camped right next to the big pool and large heated jacuzzi. The park is well laid out with the Activity Center, pool, tennis courts, and more right in the middle of the park. The Hidden Cove area is a neighborhood of permanent, small cabins. There’s also a neighborhood of long term residents and another area pretty much dominated by seasonal people.

With all of that, there’s plenty of full hookup sites for short term visitors like us. There’s WiFi but it’s not that great. We have a five bar connect but it’s still sluggish at best. My Verizon 4G, though, is 3 bars and not bad at all. We’re in a 30 amp site, but for an extra $3 there are plenty of 50 amp sites available. When we were here in February we went to a Valentine’s dinner at the Activity Center. A talented fellow played the keyboard and the steak dinner was very good. Now, though, we’re into May and most of the seasonal people have headed north. We went to a scheduled potluck and were out of luck, as no one showed up. It think the lack of attendance was due to the number of departures coupled with a local tragedy that resulted in the death of one of the long time residents. Nearly every “long timer” we talked to mentioned it. I think that speaks well of the sense of community here. The park has it’s share of trees, but not so much that there’s any problem getting satellite TV. Also, our rooftop antenna is sufficient for us to get most of the Houston TV stations. I think most of the area attractions are Houston oriented; around 40 to 60 minutes to the south. Since Houston has been local to us for the past many years we’re not inclined to fight the traffic so our time here is more being used for decompression from the intense events of our lives the past few weeks. That’s okay with us but we are starting to think about the next parts of our big adventure.

Let me also mention that just a few minutes from the preserve, on Little Egypt Road, is John Burge Park. It’s a county park with some nice wooded trails and a nifty frisbee golf course out through the deep woods. If you like to enjoy a 30 minute hike through the woods you’ll enjoy this park.