Mammoth goes to the ocean, again! Hurray!

Saturday 8/14 Day 1
Going to the beach!  We got a horribly late start due to Ed working on the air conditioner until eight o'clock the night before. The thermostats he ordered weren't going to work, so he eventually gave up, taped down the loose wires, and ordered different ones.  So we headed to the beach with only one air conditioner...and much worry.

We ended up pulling out at approximately 10:45; we arrived at the gate at Crane's Mill Park on Canyon lake at 5:18. We had to wait on people to get into the park, just five minutes or so, and by the time we were all done and hooked up it was 5:43.

I won't say it "poured down rain" but it very well could have. As we headed out 121 toward I-35 West in Fort Worth, heavy rain was moving in from the northwest. We sped to the southwest, hopping to outrun it. And we succeeded, mostly. It rained only a little bit as we headed south on I-35, but it was enough to make the already bad traffic suck worse.

When we stopped at the rest area between Hillsboro and West, the rain had ended. And the cool air it brought was beginning to be replaced by the midsummer blast furnace that is central Texas. Ugh.

Traffic never really got better. The route I chose to avoid Austin had us cutting over through Killeen to 281 South. And that sucked because we had to go through Lampasas, Burnet, and Marble Falls. There were no real problems in any of them except stupid traffic lights and stupid people doing their stupid Saturday shopping.

If I had to retire anywhere in central Texas, I'd probably choose Marble Falls. it's the prettiest little place and it has lots of water--the Colorado River dammed up to make Lake m\Marble Falls.  In any event, the falls are lost way down deep under all that impounded water.

At Crane's mill Park we were checked in by an attendant who didn't seem to understand that we needed a sticker for the tow vehicle, too. Instead of trying to make sense of what he was saying, we should have just stated, loudly and clearly, may we get a windshield sticker for our Jeep?  But we let it go.  Later, of course, when we returned from Bob and Theresa's, the guy at the gate was a little upset that we had disturbed his internet browsing and were trying to get into the park without a sticker, but he let us in anyway. I guess it would have been too much work to look up on the schedule to verify that we were registered campers.

I dislike this campground immensely. Next time I'm going somewhere else, and if I can't find a park nearby I'll just do a private campground.  The only exception would be a single night stopover, like this one, but on a week day.