Brookeland, TX
Monday, February 1
Hard to believe, we’ve been on the road for a week already! Monday began at Caddo Lake State Park in Karnack, Texas. I pushed play on my workout in the campground early in the morning while Andi showered and fed Tory and Aden breakfast.
Andi and I considered going for a morning hike on one of the many state park trails, but instead decided to drive to the nearby town of Jefferson about 20 minutes away.
Jefferson is a small, east Texas town with around 2,500 residents. Anyone looking for antique stores would hit the jackpot in this town — there were at least 20 of them! Andi parked our RV near the entrance of a walking trail and the four of us meandered near the banks of the Big Cypress Bayou, and then along the quaint city streets.
On our walk, we found a honey bee colony and took a few minutes to read about a bee’s life. Tory and Aden learned there’s three types of bees: one queen bee in each colony responsible for all reproduction, female worker bees who do all the work building a colony and making honey, and male drone bees who do nothing but mate with the queen. What a life for those drones! Sounds like the female bees do all the work.
Andi and I keep trying to compare Texas to another state, but what we’ve seen so far has its own look and feeling. In East Texas, we have noticed similar architecture as Louisiana and there’s lots of decorations for Mardi Gras here.
After our walking tour around Jefferson, the four of us hopped back in the RV and drove two hours south to a KOA campground in Brookeland, Texas. Southeast Texas is known as The Big Thicket — a heavily forested region of the state. Nearby the town of Brookeland is by the Sam Rayburn Reservoir.
Andi had a few calls to make that afternoon, so he walked around the campground talking on the phone while Tory, Aden and I stayed in the RV and did school. The RV parked next to us at the KOA let their cat outdoors which provided quite the entertainment (ahem, distraction) for the kids while they focused on schoolwork. The cat sat on our RV doorstep meowing.
When calls and school were finished, we threw in some laundry near the campground main office and then took a family walk while it washed. The Sam Rayburn Reservoir is a mile from the KOA campground. It was a beautiful afternoon to be outside. Temperatures were in mid-fifties and the sun was shining.
Tory insisted on bringing her dolls on our walk. Knowing we were planning to walk about three miles in total to the lake and back, Andi suggested she leave them in the RV. It was a father/daughter stand-off! “I promise I’ll carry them the whole way,” Tory said.
To her credit, Tory did carry the dolls the entire walk. Twice though, she dropped a doll accessory and we had search the ground for it. We found them both times.
It’s so interesting to see how people recreate around different parts of the county. We walked by several trailer park communities with campers and fishing boats. This is “cabin life” for many in this area. Pretty quiet tonight, though, on this “off-season” day.
The sky an hour before sunset was gorgeous. We stopped to take a few pictures of the kids as we walked. I love watching the close relationship between Tory and Aden when we’re traveling. They are each other best friends on the road!
For dinner, Andi grilled some crappie filets we brought from home and made them into fish tacos. Well, Andi had fish tacos. I ate my blackened fish over salad greens and the kids ate theirs plain with tater tots and fruit. Andi said he felt like a short-order cook making dinner; I said, “welcome to my life!”
Andi hoped to get in for a last-minute eye appointment in the area tomorrow, but tonight we decided to push on toward Galveston instead. There isn’t much to do in this rural area of southeast Texas and we didn’t want to spend another whole day here tomorrow waiting for the eye appointment. Nothing serious re: Andi’s eyes; they’ve just been bothering him while he drives and he wanted to get them checked out sooner than later. He was able to score an appointment in Galveston later this week, so we’ll head there.
Tomorrow — the beach!
