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Author: Jerry

Cranes Mill Park (COE), Canyon Lake, TX

Cranes Mill Park (COE), Canyon Lake, TX

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We spent 2 weeks at Cranes Mill Park on Canyon Lake as our first stop after Johnson Creek where we had stayed put for six months while waiting for COVID-19 to improve. Cranes Mill and Canyon Lake had been highly recommended by our new friends Darrell and Kay who we met at Johnson Creek as well as several others. There aren’t a lot of trees in the park but we couldn’t have picked a better time to be there. Eleven out of the fourteen days we spent there were were fairly cool for Texas in mid-September. In the evenings with a north breeze it actually got a bit cold and we were able to enjoy three campfires.

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Johnson Creek RV Resort, Ingram TX

Johnson Creek RV Resort, Ingram TX

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Yes, we are alive and well! The dreaded virus that has invaded our country has kept us sheltered-in-place for 6 months. Thank you to many friends and family who have reached out to check on us when we had not posted to this blog in quite a while.

We arrived at Johnson Creek RV Resort in mid-March for a planned one month stay before returning to the Austin area for our semi-annual doctor visits. We had been looking forward to getting there because of the beauty of the Texas Hill Country in the spring, opportunities for lots of activities and events, wineries, outdoor areas and a lot of good restaurants but soon realized everything was closing. Just before we arrived we had seen the first of empty store shelves due to the COVID-19 pandemic and we were starting to see some craziness around RV Parks and closures. We quickly assessed the situation and felt that we would be safer sheltering-in-place as a longer term resident. We found the area to be wonderful for a long stay. It had a good hospital along with a nearby Walmart so we updated our reservation extending our stay. We ultimately spent six months here, the longest we have stayed anywhere since we started this adventure.

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Hilltop RV Park, Fort Stockton, TX

Hilltop RV Park, Fort Stockton, TX

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We ended up staying in Fort Stockton for a week on our way back through Texas from New Mexico. Basically there isn’t a lot to do there but we did find several things to look at including the area around the Visitor Center, historic downtown including the courthouse, a frontier era jail, and the remains of Fort Stockton, an old frontier fort. We also visited the Annie Riggs Memorial Museum where we learned a lot about the history of the area. As with most frontier towns, there is a lot of interesting facts about the early pioneers that settled here and much of the early law typically had criminal histories as well. It’s fun to think about what life must have been like in those tough times.

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Mountain View RV Park, Van Horn, TX

Mountain View RV Park, Van Horn, TX

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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Site Quality: Gravel pads and roads. Our site was long enough for our rig and truck.
Type: Commercial
Access: Easy access from Interstate 10 about 2 hours east of El Paso.
Staff: The manager we checked in with was very friendly and helpful.
Amenities: There were Restrooms with showers and laundry facilities but we didn’t use them. Ice and filtered water machine on site.
Cellular/WiFi: Verizon and AT&T were very good. The park had WiFi but we did not use it.
Restaurants: At the recommendation of the park hosts we went to RJ’s Grill in town. Having been hailed as the best place in town to eat we were a bit disappointed. The food was acceptable but nothing special. There is a restaurant at the El Capitan Hotel that looked pretty good but it was pricey for a 1-star hotel. The hotel is historic within the town and looked better than 1-star to us but we decided not to spend the extra money to eat there.
What we liked: Ease of access along I-10. Full hookups during the winter. Nice views of the nearby mountains. Large park with some permanent residents and quite a few empty sites so it was easy to get in. We were given a range of sites and told we could pick whichever one we liked best.
What we didn’t like: The park is gravel and it rained most of the time we were there. Water puddled during the rain but it did not become muddy. The owner said they hadn’t had rain until then in months and it does tend to become dusty without rain. There is a train track nearby but noise was minimal and they didn’t seem to blow their horn going through town. There isn’t much to do in town – maybe a museum or two. This was a good place distance wise for us to stop overnight and we were able to get the trailer’s yearly inspection done at Virdell Tire and Tow in town. Typical for small towns, the guy dropped the job he was doing and quickly checked the trailer and had us on the way.
Verdict: We weren’t sure what to expect before we arrived. The park looked decent on their web site but we’ve seen many of those that just aren’t what the pictures portrayed. Mountain View was an exception. The park was clean and well laid out. Although gravel, it did not turn to mud in the rain. We were pleasantly surprised and would stay here again when passing through.