Keep Up With The Joneses – Page 19 – Adventure Awaits: Retirement On The Road

Sanger / Denton North KOA, Sanger, TX

November 16, 2019 Jerry Comments 0 Comment

Rating: ⭐⭐
Site Quality: Asphalt and gravel roads and pads. Long enough for our rig and truck. Sites are fairly close together with a picnic table for each. The first couple of rows of sites (1 to 42) have concrete pads and roads. The remaining sites are gravel with gravel roads that weren’t in great shape when we were there. These sites seem to be occupied by long term residents.
Type: Commercial Park
Access: Just North of Denton in Sanger, TX right on Interstate 35.
Staff: Staff interaction was good but minimal.
Amenities: Fishing pond, Swimming pool, clubhouse, pavillion, playground, laundry.
Cellular/WiFi: Verizon and AT&T were both acceptable but a bit slow. They may have had WiFi but we did not use it and they did not advertise it.
What we liked: Easy access, nice clean park in most cases. Good access to stores and restaurants nearby (mostly in Sanger and Denton which is about 12 miles away). Very little road noise as the park is pretty far off I-35 and there is an RV dealership in between the road and the park. McClains RV store is expanding and will likely be a huge superstore soon.
What we didn’t like: Some train horn noise from tracks about 1/4 mile away but it wasn’t bad. Quite a few long term residents in the gravel area of the park and the roads there were also gravel and not well maintained.
Verdict: This is an acceptable park for a night or two stay when passing through but nothing really special. There are several state parks nearby that would likely be nicer although a bit less convenient.

Re-Packing Wheel Bearings

November 13, 2019 Jerry Comments 2 comments

This blog article is primarily for me to remember the procedure (and part numbers needed) to re-pack the bearings on our 2018 Luxe LF-39FB with dual 9000 pound axles and Morryde independent suspension. The generally accepted maintenance schedule for wheel bearings is to inspect and repack them every 12,000 miles or 12 months whichever comes first. Although there are products to add grease to bearings without taking the hubs apart, it’s still a good idea to do so to enable inspection of the bearings and other parts to prevent a possibly catastrophic failure that might otherwise be preventable. For instance, we found a leaking brake caliper and a bad brake pad during this procedure. Luckily, we didn’t find any bearing issues. Although you could easily do the job in half or less time, we did the work on one hub at a time so that parts could not become mixed up between hubs. This process took us about 2 hours per hub working at a slow pace.

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Lake Livingston / Onalaska KOA, Onalaska TX

October 31, 2019 Jerry Comments 1 comment

We stayed at the Lake Livingston / Onalaska KOA in late October of 2019 as we were heading back to the Round Rock Area from our tour of the Southeast. The first part of the stay we met up with good friends, Tammie and Peter, for three days with their new RV. The first two of those days, the weather didn’t cooperate. We woke up on the third to a gorgeous day. The sky was clear and it was warm enough to be comfortable but cool enough at night to have a campfire while sitting outside and watching the World Series game 5, Houston Astros beat the Washington Nationals. It was a great four days with them relaxing, catching up, and making new memories. Peter is a great cook and made dinner twice! So glad we can look forward to camping with them in the future.

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A+ Motel & RV Park, Sulphur, LA

October 24, 2019 Jerry Comments 0 Comment

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐-
Site Quality: Concrete roads and pads. Long enough for our rig and truck. Sites are fairly wide and have nice patios along with a picnic table and grill.
Type: Commercial Park
Access: About 2 miles south of I-10 in Sulphur, LA (Just West of Lake Charles).
Staff: Staff interaction was good. They moved us from a shorter back-in site into a pull-through.
Amenities: Two swimming pools, one just for adults. Propane on site. Playground, fishing pond, laundry facilities, restrooms/showers, gym/recreation room. Free cable TV and WiFi.
Cellular/WiFi: Verizon and AT&T were both good. They had WiFi but we did not use it.
What we liked: Easy access, nice clean park. Quite a few long term residents but the park strictly enforces rules to keep the park looking great. Good access to stores and restaurants nearby. Lots of stuff going on in Lake Charles if you stay longer. We were only here overnight.
What we didn’t like: A tree next to our site could have been trimmed up a bit. I-10 in Louisiana is horribly rough with a lot of construction both particularly bad near Lafayette. We had been through that area about a year before and honestly not much seems to have changed. It will be quite some time before the construction is completed. Probably not a good place to be in the summer.
Verdict: Great stop along I-10 for an overnight or longer.

Buccaneer State Park, Waveland, MS

October 23, 2019 Jerry Comments 0 Comment

Buccaneer State Park was pretty and reminded us a bit of Tyler State park in Texas. When we booked, the only place we could get more than a week in a site large enough for our trailer was Royal Cay. Even when we got there, a sign on the office window said they were booked up although that was taken down later in the week. What we found was that there were always numerous empty sites in the park. In our loop there were never more than 4 or 5 campers there in a loop of 57 sites. We were pretty much all by ourselves in the back of the loop. While we liked the seclusion, Royal Cay was the least desirable loop with gravel pads and no picnic tables, grills or fire rings. We also had a train track about 100′ away and although they didn’t use their horns they were still quite loud when they passed by at all hours of the day and night. We likely would have preferred to be in another loop particularly since they weren’t as booked as they indicated.

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