Magnus the Mighty (expensive) Motorhome takes us to the coast

Mon 4 Dec 2023
But first, a couple of motorhome decor pictures:

First day of our December camping trip, to Brazos Bend and Sea Rim.`What kind of idiots go camping in December? My kind, I guess.

But it's not really that cold--no colder than we've done in November or early spring trips. Highs in the mid-sixties to nearly seventy; lows around 45. Or in human terms, cold enough to make me wear jeans over my sweat pants, two hoodies and a heavy jacket in the morning, but warm enough to wear a teeshirt in the afternoon for jogging and wish I'd swapped the sweat pants for shorts when I'm going uphill in the sun. But there wasn't much of that at our first stop--the sun. There were too many trees.

Mostly post and blackjack oaks, both small trees up to 30 feet or so; sprinkled with cedar elm and red cedar. And crowned with a goodly number of Loblolly pines, both large and small. They seem to call this the "lost pines" area. I can't imagine why--there are too many pines here to consider them lost.

But back to Day 1. We left home at about 9:30 and arrived at Buescher State Park at about 2:20. A pretty easy drive with only one pee stop and no gas stops. Google Maps took us down the Pickle parkway to bypass Austin and then just a short jaunt east through Bastrop.


Ed had a lot of trouble on the park road--trying to move to the side to avoid what appeared to be low overhanging branches, he ended up having to back up. Making me and the guy behind me back up, tool. But when Ed finally satisfied himself getting through, he said that branches on the sides scraped a little. I didn't see it, I'm glad to say.

Molly and I went for a little walk before supper, and after exploring all the rest of the camping loops, amphitheather, and playground we ended up taking a short cut across the spillway behind the teeny tiny dam on the teeny tiny lake.  So we circled the lake and arrived back at camp in slightly more than one hour, arriving just as the charcoal was burning down to cook steak and fish for supper.

Nice night. I saw about five deer during the walk but Molly missed them. Poor girl.  Other than that, all I saw was a house wren, a red-bellied woodpecker, a cardinal, and a ruby-crowned kinglet.

 REVIEW   Buescher State Park

We were in the water/electric site 19, Oak Haven loop. It was a nice site, mostly shady but well cleared around so we didn't have any issue backing in. We probably would have had little trouble getting a satellite signal if we'd had a satellite. I think the surface was asphalt but I'm not sure. It was long enough for a 35' motorhome and a tow vehicle.

Only 30-amp electricity, though. That wouldn't have worked for us in the summer since we need to run both air conditioners to keep cool. But in December, it was fine.

Although it was beside the lake, you couldn't see down to the lake from our site.  Also it had such dense underbrush that we felt closed-in. Private and cozy but without any scenic view.  But in the same loop there were a few cabins with decks that overlooked the lake down below (through trees).  They were very nice and even had air conditioning units. But our site had such dense underbrush that we felt closed in--the thick brush gave us privacy from the other campsites, which were well spaced away, but no room to breathe.

Getting into the camping loop was challenging. The trees were not trimmed overhead or on the sides, so it was impossible to get through without scratching at the sides and on the roof. We are in a 35' motorhome, about 12'2" tall, and since it was pretty much brand-new to us, we were over-sensitive to the scratching.

There were a few trails that my dog and I found quite pleasant to walk. Not a long walk, but not bad.  We ended up circling the lake to make an extra mile.