2023 – Galway and the Wild Atlantic Way, Ireland

Part two of our quick trip to Ireland began with a Sunday afternoon high speed train trip from Dublin to Galway.  We really enjoy train travel (evidenced by our big train trip to Italy and the Swiss Alps).  The trains are fast and reasonably quiet.  They are also reasonably priced.  We enjoyed the two-hour trip across the country as the train reached speeds of up to 100 mph at times.

I picked our hotel in Galway specifically because of it being practically next door to the train/bus station and being only a five-minute walk to the Spanish Quarter, a lively area featuring many shops and restaurants.  Our hotel was actually part of the 13 on the Green Pub.  As it turned out, our small, but serviceable, room was directly above the pub!  As far as I could tell, we never heard anything from down below.  However, out our window we looked down on the pedestrian crossing of a narrow city street.  Every time the crossing went to green we heard the “beep, beep, beep” pedestrian signal.  After 11:00 or so at night traffic calmed down and people stopped pushing the “wait to cross” button.  Still, it was a rather noisy place to stay and we didn’t sleep well either night that we were there.

After arriving in Galway we headed across Eyre Square and into the Latin Quarter.  We window shopped and people watched, stretching our legs after the train ride.  There were buskers playing and singing to the crowds.  Nearby we found the Spanish Arch and Wall, which are hundreds of years old.  Later on we went into a shopping mall and saw that part of that wall has been preserved inside the mall!

The next morning we walked just a few minutes to the pickup point for our bus tour.  This is an all day tour that features the Cliffs of Moher and other destinations to the south of Galway along the coast.  There are other tours and I wish we had had the time to take them, but I think this one is considered the major one and I’m glad we took it.  Highlights included a look at Dunguarie Castle, Aillwee Cave (with a nice underground waterfall), a rocky area called the Burren, and the Cliffs of Moher.  The route follows part of the Wild Atlantic Way – a scenic drive along the ocean.  This area is very popular with both locals and tourists.  Many festivals take place in the small towns along the way and during the summer the area is packed with visitors.

The main draw for us was the Cliffs of Moher.  There are wide, paved trails up onto the cliffs.  However, you can also ask for a lift on a golf cart (called the “Lifts of Moher”).  We opted for that and a driver cheerfully took us up to two different overlooks.  I have to say that we stayed a shorter time than we would have liked because of the cold, strong wind!  As I understand it, it is quite common so if you make the trip, check the weather conditions on the Cliffs.

We hopped a national bus the next morning for a two hour trip to Shannon Airport.  That airport was the exact opposite of Manchester Airport.  Shannon was quiet and laid back.  Our trip through security was just a formality and our plane left pretty much on time.

I’d say our visit to Ireland give us just a taste of the island.  It is interesting to consider that if we were coming to Ireland from the states the airfare would be hundreds of dollars more than what we spent for the short hop across the Irish Sea.  When you spend more you want to stay long enough to feel you have received value for the cost.  In our case, we just did a long weekend.  We saw less, but then again we spent considerably less.  I guess everything in life has its tradeoffs.  Long stay or short, we do recommend Ireland as an interesting and beautiful destination.

2022 – American in the UK – random observations

  • Apparently, all overcoats zip on the woman’s side
  • Even if you think you are a fast walker you’re still likely to be passed by young mother pushing a stroller
  • Dogs are almost universally well behaved even when off leash
  • Even though people usually ignore others when they meet on a sidewalk (called “pavement”) if you’re a couple in your 70s holding hands they will smile
  • No outlets in bathrooms
  • Public bathrooms are called toilets… Or the loo, or gents – but not bathrooms unless you can take a bath (or shower) in them
  • Just because it is raining it doesn’t mean the sun won’t be out in a minute or two… Or the reverse
  • Americans tend to be louder than Brits in public settings
  • Because of TV Brits know most American ways of speaking, but at first, they may have to ask you to repeat so they can adjust their listening for an American accent (which is okay, I often have to ask for a repeat too)
  • From what I can see Brits like coffee better than tea
  • People in the UK like lots of milk (not cream or creamer) in their coffee
  • UK bus drivers are amazing
  • Brits have no idea what side of the pavement to walk on – most every time you meet an oncoming walker you have a moment of figuring out which side is correct for this specific encounter
  • When an ESL student from Asia doesn’t understand you repeating it in Spanish doesn’t help
  • Nazarenes in the UK sing with more enthusiasm than we sing in the United States
  • At any given time you will see people wearing tee shirts and shorts and others in heavy hooded coats – over the next 30 minutes or so, both will be properly dressed for the weather
  • Tylenol is paracetamol here, it is cheap, but you can only buy small packages of bubble cards of them, and no more than two packs at a time. Prescription meds come the same way
  • $13 will buy enough Chinese food to feed two people for two meals each
  • You never have change in your pocket because everyone everywhere does credit card tap and go, my smallest charge so far was 60 cents – I think this might be especially tough on street people asking for change
  • Using grocery delivery makes all kinds of sense when you would otherwise have to carry it all home about a third of a mile

Checking out our Didsbury, Manchester neighborhood

We’re now in the second week of our UK Adventure.  Jackie has started volunteering in the Library.  My involvement begins with some minor stuff later on.  We’ve either been busy trying to get settled in or laying low, resting up from it all.  I generally do a lot of walking for exercise but today was the first time I’ve actually gone out exploring just for the fun of it.  The weather is perfect for a walk, in the 60’s and a bit overcast – a typical summer day in Manchester.

Our neighborhood is a nice one.  Lots of driveways with gated drives, small and often paved front yards, and beautiful homes.  Just down the street there’s a house gate with the Batman logo on it.  One of the cars is also branded with the logo.  Apparently, we’re well protected!

The main street (main streets are often called “high street” here) is less than 10 minutes away.  There are lots of shops ranging from restaurants to two butchers to a green grocer.  So far our favorite place to eat is the carry out (“take away”) fish and chips place.  But we’re still very early in our time here and there are plenty of eating places to check out.  Our main place to catch the bus is in front of the fish place but depending on where we are headed, we might want to walk a different direction to catch other busses going to different areas of the city.

People are walking everywhere.  From what I can tell, this has little to do with the excellent weather.  In spite of all the cars and traffic, the great public transit encourages people to walk rather than drive.  A surprising number of people don’t own a car or even have a driver’s license.

Of course, the biggest difference so far as the roadways are concerned is that people drive on the left side of the road.  You’d think that since we are walking that that wouldn’t matter to us.  However, every time we cross the road we have to be sure to check the traffic in the right direction.  In fact, “right direction” is just the way to think about it!  Look to the right for traffic.  Honestly, I feel like a 6 year old being given permission to cross the street alone.  I look back and forth about 4 times before I hurry across the street.

Aside from the number of people walking and having to be aware of traffic the other thing we’ve noticed is the presence of sidewalks on both sides of the road just about everywhere.  Sidewalks are called “the pavement” here, and it is unusual for a roadway to not have sidewalks on both sides.  Judging by the number of pedestrians it makes perfect sense.

As I mentioned, we’re in a nice area here so I’m sure that things aren’t just like our neighborhood everywhere.

2021 – Lake Conroe Thousand Trails, Willis, TX


We’ve just finished another nice stay at Lake Conroe Thousand Trails, Willis, TX. One of the really nice features of this stay was the opportunity to be with good friends. Jerry and Carol were our Battleship Texas neighbors for several years. They were neighbors again, parked just behind us. Also Bob and Erma are local to Conroe and we invited them out for burgers and fellowship. It was a very nice night. Then long time friends Steve and Jeanette brought their new-to-them camper up for a few days. We were glad to have some time with them.

Generally speaking mid-July temps in Texas keep people inside but our wet July produced some cooling thunderstorms several afternoons. Once the storm passed, it was nice sitting out.

As you can tell, I’m not giving much of a Lake Conroe review. However, I’ve done a bunch of them. You can find them here.

2021 – Lake Conroe Thousand Trails, Willis, TX


You might say that our February 2021 stay at Lake Conroe Thousand Trails was a study in contrasts. We arrived just prior to the record breaking Texas winter storm. We had lows in the single digits plus snow and ice. Then, a week later we had the air conditioning running as temps reached a humid 80 degrees. In addition to the cold weather the campground joined a good part of the state in being without electricity for a day and a half. We were so thankful for our Onan generator that ran flawlessly. That and a full tank of propane kept our furnaces running. We had a heated water hose, but the campground water froze up so that left us relying on on-board water. However, in spite of our running heat in our wet bay our on-board water pump froze up for a day. We were prepared with plenty of water containers filled. Really, any inconvenience we experienced was minor compared to what others experienced.

Then, almost overnight, we were back in Springtime weather. The sun came out, power came back on, the water started working and all was well with the world. We enjoyed sitting outside and taking several walks. The Lake Conroe sunsets are always a treat.

We aren’t always fans of the “new” section (called Area B) of the campground. As I’ve mentioned before the sites along the wall almost all slant down, away from the wall. That means that when you level a motorhome the front tires are left dangling and the entry steps are high in the air. People in 5th wheels end up putting blocks under their landing gear. Also, some of these sites have rather steep entry ramps. In other words, we don’t recommend those sites. Other sites in that section, though, are very good. We ended up in a huge, level pull through. With bad weather coming in we couldn’t have asked for a better spot.

One complaint we have is the lack of respect several have for this nicer section of the campground. I can’t believe how many people drive up onto the grass, leaving deep ruts. Frankly, since I was here when some of the landscaping was going on I can’t believe Thousand Trails allows it. This section of Lake Conroe Thousand Trails has some of the nicest campsites in the entire system. It is a shame to see people showing such a lack of appreciation for it.

Honestly, if you are coming to this property I suggest you not have tunnel vision about staying in Area B. There are many nice sites in other areas. They are closer to the pool, etc. and in the summer some of them offer a bit of shade. Over in “B” you will have a white concrete site that reflects the sun right back onto your camper. Anyway, it is a “to each his own” situation. Generally speaking, we have been happy with the choices of campsites in this campground and it remains one of our favorite Thousand Trails.

We have written several other reviews of this campground – you can find them here.

2021 – High View CoE – Ennis, TX – shortstop


We got away from Lake Texoma Thousand Trails on Monday afternoon, so the 140 miles down to High View CoE in Ennis, TX was just about the right distance. Knowing the Artic cold front was coming, we only hooked up electricity. As I said in my previous review, the water hookup is behind the back of the sites. My heated hose isn’t nearly long enough to reach that far. Not only that, but the water hookup is just a bare pipe sticking up about 3 feet out of the ground. By morning, the water was frozen up, so hooking up would have been a waste of time. The cold weather brought winter storm conditions, especially south of us so we decided to just stay put a couple of extra days. One of the nice things about living in a RV full time is that you always have the option to “run” from threatening weather or to hunker down and wait out challenging travel conditions. After three nights, though, we were ready to head south again.

We enjoyed the nice lake view out our front window. We also enjoyed seeing a large flock of cardinals – I counted 19 of the pretty red birds in our “back yard.”

2020 – Lake Texoma Thousand Trails – Gordonville, TX


We enjoyed another nice stay at Lake Texoma Thousand Trails, near Gordonville, TX. The August heat was intense and that kept us inside more than we would have liked. However, there was a bit of a reprieve in the mornings and evenings. We took advantage of that to get some walks in and to sit outside and enjoy our morning coffee.

The virus has limited activities at Lake Texoma as it has most everywhere. However, the pools are open. They received plenty of action, especially over Labor Day weekend. I was a bit surprised to see several nice sites unused over the holiday. I’m guessing it was the result of unseasonably hot weather plus the virus concerns.

I’ve reviewed this Thousand Trails before, so I’ll just add a few more photos in this review. We enjoy this campground and will look forward to staying there again.

All Lake Texoma reviews are here.

Six ways to battle the Texas summer heat in a RV

Like a lot of people our travel plans have been preempted by the pandemic. In our case, we had already decided to shorten our travel adventure this year as we are serving as interim pastor at Houston’s Southwest Church of the Nazarene.

And, not that this will come as a surprise to you, summers in Texas are hot! In our case, we are near the Gulf Coast, so not only is it hot but it is humid too. Not a fun mix. Not only that, but there’s no shade.

Our motorhome has two air conditioners. The bedroom a/c does a good job of keeping things cool. The living room unit, though, struggles to keep up. We’ve made six adjustments that make a big difference.

    1. Of course, we keep the front window curtains drawn. Not only that, but we have giant sunshades (similar to what people use in their cars) for these windows. We certainly miss the view out of  our big “picture window” but this is the number one thing that keeps things comfortable in our living room.
    2. It probably goes without saying, but I keep an eye on the air conditioner filters. Running as much as the units are, the filters need cleaning a couple of times a month. Our units also have “Quick Cool” (or “air dump”) vents. We open them to dump a lot of cold air straight down into the RV, rather than running air through the vents where the heat from the roof warms the air a bit.
    3. Another big improvement is adding Reflectix to several windows. This is a heat reflecting insulation that is cut to fit. We have put this product on our west facing windows as well as on other seldom used windows.
    4. The next thing we have done is install curtains the width of the rig behind the driver’s/passenger’s seats, creating a sort of vestibule. This keeps the cool air from the a/c concentrated in our living room and kitchen and helps trap the warm air from opening the front door in the front of the rig. There’s around  a 5 degree difference between the driving area and the living room.
    5. We are running a couple of electric fans that keep the air moving. One of the fans is an oscillating tower that makes a nice difference.
    6. Finally, as long as the hot wind isn’t blowing too hard, in the afternoons we leave the awning extended on the curb side of the rig. This shades the west side of the motorhome and keeps the walls from heating up.

We know that the best RV summer solution is moving to a cooler spot. However, there are times when that isn’t possible and “all the above” does help us stay comfortable.

So what are your tips for weathering summer heat and humidity in a RV?

2019 – Project: Roof Vents Repair and Upgrade

One of the few things we don’t like about RV Fulltiming is dealing with severe weather and the other night we had a big thunderstorm come through. For a few minutes we had nickle sized hail. Tell you what, having hail beating down on the RV is attention-getting! Our motorhome has three roof vents/exhaust fans. One is covered. The other two, one in a hallway and the other in the bathroom, have no cover over the lid.


We were already aware that one of those lids had a small corner crack so replacing it was on the agenda. The hail storm, though, moved that project to the front burner. The hail broke through that lid, knocking holes in it. The other lid cracked but held. As the storm continued, I grabbed some gaffer tape and taped the broken lid from the inside the best I could. The next morning I got on the roof to survey the damage. Happily, the only damage was to the two lids. I taped them both up some more and ordered replacements as well as new vent covers.


The project was easy enough and in an hour or so I had the new lids plus new covers installed. The covers will not only protect the lids in rough weather and against sun damage but will keep the rain out if the vents are left open. They can also be cracked open when we are traveling to create airflow through the camper.


This is an easy upgrade and I recommend it to anyone who has a RV that doesn’t have the covers.

2018 – Shenandoah Valley Campground – Verona, VA


We only intended on spending three nights at Shenandoah Valley Campground, Verona, VA. It turned out that our stay was shortened by a day. The campground is reasonably near I81, nestled in the Middle River valley. The campground is all about that river, which is a gentle stream, perfect for tubing most of the time. Then, near the popular tenting area is the real gem of the campground: a beautiful waterfall dropping in from the higher ground opposite the campground. Again, our stay was brief and in the week following heavy rains from what was Hurricane Florence. With the river running high (and it was flooding the campground in the days prior to our arrival), the waterfall was stunning.

There is a camping area on the plateau above the large camping area on the river; that’s where we stayed. Really, we were glad to be a bit higher, knowing that the river was pretty full and that more rain was forecast. My thinking was that even if the river overflowed its banks again we would be high enough to be clear of any danger. After the Hurricane Florence related flooding the campground staff worked many hours putting fresh gravel down throughout the large water-front area of the campground which is all gravel – roads and campsites.

This is a destination campground with a large, heated pool and several hot tubs located indoors. There’s also a nice fishing lake and a couple of playgrounds. The kids have a blast bike riding, fishing, tubing, swimming, and feeding the many mostly-tame rabbits.

WiFi is slow and only available in the campground store.  My Verizon signal was poor to zero.  I got a satellite signal but not many people would.  Having a homestyle dish on a tripod let me set up in the only sweet spot, just peeking over the trees to the south of us.  The sites themselves are pretty tight with neighbors very close in on both sides.

As I said, our stay was supposed to be three nights but after a night of rain on Saturday night a staff member knocked on our door telling us that the entire campground was being evicted by the sheriff’s office. The issue wasn’t flooding in the campground. Rather, it was the county road leading to the campground that was in danger of going underwater. We were told that we needed to be out within the hour.

So, we skipped breakfast and gave up on attending church and began preparing to move. It usually takes us a bit less than an hour to be ready to pull out. In this case, we were ready to go in around 40 minutes. The road out was fine, but there is one section that dips down right beside the river for a 100 yards or so. Water was lapping against the pavement as we came through.

For us, it was more of an inconvenience than anything else and we just moved down the highway to our next scheduled stop. I do feel sorry for the campground especially in light of all the work they did to get open again following the flooding.


See individual photos with captions here.