Monday, April 18, 2022. Killeen to Houston
Our Harvest Host experience at Camp Caylor was not a good one. Although they were gracious in allowing us to spend the night in their parking lot, we weren’t able to patronize their usual business because of closing early and holding a staff Easter party. We returned to the site after running into Killeen to do our Zoom call. The staff party was just wrapping up. We set up camp, running out our slide and running our air conditioner until the temperatures dropped into the 70’s. We were then able to open the windows and rely on passive ventilation. Although the location is on the outskirts of town, it overlooks a very busy highway, so there was a lot of traffic noise. We eventually were able to get to sleep around 11pm. However, at 5:15am, we began hearing loud thumping music like a ghetto cruiser was parked just behind us. Then the music became much louder, like someone was intentionally blasting us with a 10,000 watt audio system. To add to the puzzlement, there was also a small dog that was barking incessantly. Ben got up to see what was going on, and he saw that there was a steel building on the adjacent property about a hundred feet away on the other side of a fence, and for some reason, the back door was propped open with a huge commercial fan in the doorway. Inside, Ben could see a man moving past the door way periodically while the dog was running around outside the door barking at nothing in particular. The music was so loud, it would have rattled the windows in that metal building if it had any.
We couldn’t figure out what was going on and thought the neighbor had a grudge against Harvest Host campers, so we got dressed and got ready to pull out, with a possible plan B of heading back into Killeen to park in the Planet Fitness or Library parking lot until daylight, but Ben was really worried about hitting deer during these hours before daybreak when deer are most active. As we were about to pull out, the side door of the building closed and the music stopped as mysteriously as it had started. It had gone on for nearly 30 minutes. Maybe they saw our lights come on and didn’t realize they had campers next door. So we decided to stay put until daylight so that we could at least see the deer. Ben was actually able to fall back asleep for a while, but then at 7:30am, as the sun was staring to light up the landscape, the music started up again. This time, we could make out a “CrossFit” sign at the end of the building. So it was a CrossFit gym with fanatics working out at 5:15am and a second 7:30am session.
We left for good at that time, and would NOT recommend Camp Caylor to any other Harvest Host members.
We set our destination for Houston and made a fueling and bathroom stop at the Walmart on Stan Schleuter Loop heading south out of Killeen. It took 5.085 gal @$4.499/gal with 18799 on the odometer (12.8mpg).
The temperatures had dropped to 59˚F overnight. There was dense cloud cover with occasional wind gusts to 25mph, but thankfully, nothing to suggest a tornado. This part of central Texas is very lush and green thanks to humidity from the Gulf of Mexico. It is this moisture that also contributes to the formation of tornados. Ironic that the thing that brings central Texas luxuriant life can also bring such destruction and death.
In planning for a place to watch the 2024 solar eclipse, cloud cover is going to be a major issue. Yesterday morning started out with dense cloud cover, but by afternoon, the sky was cloudless. That was also the pattern in Houston. When we arrived just about 1pm, the clouds had disappeared revealing a brilliant blue sky.
The country between Killeen and Houston was predominantly range land and tree groves. What was particularly striking was the color and profusion of wild flowers in the fields and road sides. There are the Texas state flower, the Bluebonnet, and lots of bright orange Indian Paint Brush, and pink Drummond Phylox and Pink Evening Primroses contrasting with the lush green grasses. There are rolling gentle hills, so it doesn’t really come across as flat. We could see the attraction of living in this part of Texas, if it weren’t for the occasional tornado and severe hail events that can really ruin your day.
Texans seem to have different attitudes towards driving and speed limits than in coastal states. Texans like to have high speed limits. Most of the highways have speed limits of 75 or even 80mph, and even in cities, the speed limit can be 70 between intersections controlled with traffic lights so you almost have to drag race to get from one light to the next, but then slam on your brakes to keep from skidding through the intersections. We have seen occasional Texas State Patrol vehicles parked in the median, but you’d have to have a serious lead foot to catch their attention.
In several of the towns we drove through had lots of stop lights that seemed to be timed to force people to stop at every intersection. There are also many towns where the roads have deep swales crossing intersections to deal with surface water drainage, but which can also launch your car into the air if you don’t slow down as you approach the intersections. The effect is greatly magnified with a 12,000# RV.
We did run into some pretty serious traffic in Houston, even with most expressways having up to 6 lanes in each direction. We checked in with Equal Parts Brewing which is in an industrial part of town. They don’t serve food- only beer. So we decided to drive to the Costco in Pearland Tx, a suburb to the south that carries diesel, to refuel and get some Costco Chicken and Ribs for dinner. The diesel there was the cheapest we have seen on this trip so far at $3.879/gal. We took on 15.396 gal with 19012 miles on the odometer (13.8mpg).
We found a free parking spot near Buffalo Bayou Park, and walked along some of the extensive trail system in downtown Houston. This was a very nice park system with people relaxing on the grass, jogging, riding bikes and walking. We saw plenty of wildlife including turtles and ducks.
Houston also has an interesting and varied downtown skyline. It was 80˚F but not too humid when we did our walk, but were happy to run the air conditioner for a while once we got back to Equal Parts Brewing and set up for the night.
Shortly after we set up, a huge triple axle toy hauler being towed by a 1 ton dually crew cab Ford Superduty pick up backed up next to us. They have 3 air conditioners, and a big generator to boot. They were a young couple- probably in their early 30’s, who have been full timers since the pandemic cost them their conventional jobs. They now have some sort of remote based source of living, perhaps as YouTube influencers, I imagine.
The Equal Parts Brewery has quite an extensive collection of beers and ciders including lagers, hazy pale ales, IPA’s, stouts, sour ales, porters and hard ciders. They also have a wide selection of local wines. You can do custom flights with 5oz pulls, but you’d never be able to get through their in house made collection and make it out the door on your two feet. It’s a shame they don’t serve food because the venue has a very large and roomy dining room. Perhaps that will come in the future.
The Harvest Host parking is a very large gravel lot adjacent to a very large fenced lot for the local utility company with quite an extensive fleet of trucks and other service vehicles. Some employees were laying on the grass around the fence with their lunches and day-glow green vests.
When we drove back from the Pearland Costco, the Waze app directed us through surface streets that ran parallel to the freeways which were parking lots. This gave us quite a back street tour of many interesting neighborhoods in Houston including one that was gearing up for some sort of goth concert (goth kids lined up around the block and traffic dropping people off to get in line, across the street from some outdoors club that was also packed with young people). We also drove past some warehouses that appeared to be dedicated to urban graffiti art displays. There are also street trams and heavy trains that weave their way among the many flying overpasses, freeways and surface streets of Houston. We did see a few homeless encampments under some of the freeways but these paled in comparison with those in Seattle, which have to be the worst we have seen so far on our trip in terms of piles of trash and filth. In dramatic contrast, Houston is so clean! Even in the industrial areas of town, there is very little litter.
The temperatures had dropped into the mid to lower 70’s so it wasn’t necessary to run the generator or air conditioner. The utilities fleet lot was brilliantly lit, so we did had to pull all the shades to darken the interior of the RV to sleep.
We have traveled 4000 miles so far since April 5. Since Houston is about halfway across the country, we will probably end up with more than 8000 miles by the time we get back to Whidbey Island in late May. So far, aside from having do do a lot of driving, this has been an interesting and enjoyable land cruise.
