Magnus Takes a Short Sea Rim Break, Day 2

Friday July 10

We left at 10:15, heading to Martin Dies Jr State Park. Getting to Route 59 required a lot of left turns and right turns on a lot of FMs and SHs. Not hard but not fun either.

It’s a pretty place, as I remembered. But our site didn’t have any lake view. Just a peek through the trees at some very brown water.

And we didn’t enjoy trying to deal with the Texas summer heat with only 30-amp power. We started off with both air conditioners on high, but even with the soft start feature, we tripped the breaker within 30 minutes. With only one of them running the motorhome cooled down after an hour or so. A threat of showers moved through and helped with the process.

 

The park had lots of nice trails. Molly and I took one that led us through the woods along the lake shore, ending up at the park boundary where the trail turned to the left. There were numbers on signs at intervals (mile markers) but there were confusing as heck. I saw a .5 miles and then later a 1.0 miles, but then after a few turns, there was another 1.0 mile sign.

Shortly after that I tried to stand still and see a Hooded Warbler singing his heart out in the bushes, and Molly and I were swarmed by a mess of mosquitoes. I tried to continue on to where the map showed the trail hitting the road, but I couldn’t estimate how far we had to go and gave up. Backtracking, I somehow got off the trail--we were on A trail, just not THE trail. I even tried Google maps but it wouldn’t show enough detail to help us. So eventually I just went back to the point on the trail where I recognized something (a bench) and headed back the way we came. And then I started recognizing things again. Whew.

Not that we were ever seriously lost. In a pinch I could go cross country to the lake shore and follow it back. But cross country in East Texas forests is never a pleasant way to go.

On way back I saw a 1.5 mile marker. Weird.

Birds seen or heard definitively: Hooded Warbler. Little Blue Heron. Wood Thrush. Lots of Summer Tanagers. The usual mockingbirds, etc.

And one cute little alligator.

 

Review Martin Dies Junior State Park
On the swampy side of a big lake 

Before going here, make sure you know which unit your campground is in. The main office where you check in is in the Hen House Ridge Unit, and the nice people in the office should be able to direct you. If your GPS tells you to bypass the office turn-off and head across the lake, don’t listen! There is road construction blocking one lane of the bridge and we wasted fifteen minutes going across, turning around, and coming back.

Our site 301 was a nice pull-thru site with decent asphalt. The water hookup was fine but having only 30-amp electricity in the Texas summertime is the pits. We accidentally let both air conditioners of our motorhome run on high and tripped the breaker after fifteen minutes. We could run one of them on high or both of them on low. We have soft starts on the A/C units but with the antiquated 30-amp breakers that wasn’t sufficient.

The site had full sun, but most of the other sites were shady and pleasant. There were a lot of mosquitoes on the trails (of course) but in the campground they weren’t bad at all, despite the proximity of the lake. We could sit outside without bug spray, even at night.

The trails were pretty nice but I’d suggest taking a trail map with you. Google Maps works out there but the accuracy is low. 

Magnus Takes a Short Sea Rim Break

 Magnus Takes a Short Sea Rim Break 

Thursday, July 9 2026

After a rather long hiatus from pleasure trips (and trips in general), we finally geared up the Magnus and headed to the ocean. We’ve been to Sea Rim several times, but I don’t recall ever going in the middle of summer. So this should be a surprise. And hopefully not too buggy.

We got a late start, partly on purpose because also because two tires needed air. And when Ed started airing the second one, it immediately started losing pressure. I don’t know why they weren’t checked on the previous day, according to our trip plan, but I guess it was more important to sit around watching TV reruns.

After a lot of sweat, tears, and a burned-out air compressor, he managed to get the tire up to an acceptable pressure. The theory is that the valve stem extender for the extra TPMS was leaking. We will see.

So we'd expected to leave at ten or ten-thirty but finally made it at eleven or so. But we were still in no hurry because we only had a 2-1/2 hour drive.  It ended up being a beastly hot drive, with no clouds at all. But that was expected.

We arrived at Atlanta State Park (near Texarkana) at maybe 2:30 or so. We had an easy access,  pull-thru spot reserved. In the lovely big pine trees.  Which made it seem impossible for the Starlink dish to get a clear shot of the sky—but with the dishy on the ground in between Magnus and the street it worked fine. It was just a little slow to get connected.

It was awfully hot, but just enough breeze was blowing to motivate me to get on with Molly’s long afternoon walk. I promise her one hour every day, plus the usual walks (before breakfast, after breakfast, and at sunset.)  We we went off around the campground and down to the day use area, but we soon found a trail called the Volksmarch Trail. I didn’t have a trail map with me, but the sign said .7 miles to connect with the other trail, so we did an out-and-back. 

Birds seen: Summer Tanager, Carolina Wren, Pine Warbler, American Crow, Red-headed Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpecker, White-eyed Vireo, Peewee, Acadian Flycatcher

Review Atlanta SP:  A little shade cleared out under the big pines
Asphalt, pull-thru, FHU. Site 22.

Although it’s a heavily wooded (and shady!) area, the tree branches were cleared back from the road so we didn’t have any scraping or brushing. It was pretty easy access for our 35' motorhome and toad, but I’m not sure I'd try it with a bigger rig.

Our pull-thru site 22 was a little unlevel and had a few spots where the asphalt was buckling. But not bad. It was full hookup and 50-amp electric. The sewer was way back at the back of the site but that wouldn’t have been a problem if we’d been unhooking the tow vehicle and parking it in front. As it was, we just barely reached the sewer with two hoses connected to each other.

The trees made it nicely shady and it didn’t have that “closed in” feeling that you get in some east Texas campgrounds.  Our Starlink dish was challenged, but it worked well enough on the ground in between the coach and the road.

The restroom was old but nicely clean.  There weren’t many other campers and the whole place was quiet and lovely. Lots of birds, too.

The most annoying thing about the campground was that getting there and getting away required a lot of twists and turns on little FM highways. There was nothing seriously narrow or rough, but we made pretty poor time for a half-hour or so after leaving Route 59. 

Review: Good Wives

 

Good Wives:

Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England, 1650-1750

By Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

I didn’t finish this but I’m writing a review to say good things about what I did read. It was so very well researched and you could tell that a scholar knew her stuff and presented it winningly. She personalized history and dry dull fact in a charming way and made you really be interested in what was going on in the lives and minds of those women of long ago.

I quit reading (although I skimmed for the juicy bits) about halfway. It was simply not a subject that I had more than a passing interest in, sorry. But if you do, read this for sure! You won't be disappointed.

Review: What to Eat Now

What to Eat Now:

The Indispensable Guide to Good Food, How to Find It, and Why It Matters

By Marion Nestle

Wow. This is a lot of information. But all good and well-researched and sometimes horrifying to read but necessary to know.

Starting with Michael Pollan’s immortal words: “Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants,” she goes off and explains what is food and what is not and when it is not, what is it?  For every basic food group she explains how it’s grown or manufactured or created in a test tube. Then, what the major adulterants are and what are the risks of consuming them, and other important information. About the only information I didn’t find, but wanted to, was a mention of how the selective breeding of vegetables for “good looks after hard travel” came at the expense of nutrition and taste. It’s mentioned but not explained.

Review: Fire Must Burn

 

Just another in the series, as good as ever but not as deep as some.  Other than Iris’ issues, the author seems to be putting other complex emotions on the back burner and just writing a great mystery. Which should be enough….

But it isn’t.