new MoHo in New Braunfels and San Antonio

Today Moana took the day after Christmas shopping to a new level. We left Austin early Christmas morning to travel the great distance to New Braunfels, all of 60 miles. The weather was still clear and lovely in spite of the winds. The campsite we had chosen for this adventure was on the Guadalupe River, a place my sister also talked about and she was right, it is lovely. The campground was about 20 miles off the interstate at a place called Canyon Lake on the Guadalupe River. The place was called the Lazy L and L and for no reason I could figure out, it was very nearly empty. We found a spot among more than 100 with no one there except for 3 or 4 rigs way down at the opposite end. It was a perfect place for our scheduled work of the day which was getting the MoHo all tricked out and ready for a trade in.

When Mo bought the Lexus last year she traded in her Blazer and we had been traveling in it with the dog who had licked all the windows and everything was all musty and she probably lost some dollars on the trade in as a result. We were making sure that didn’t happen this time, so spent the entire afternoon clearing out the MoHo, cleaning faucets with a toothbrush and q-tips and by the time we were finished there was barely time to eat the reheated supper and watch the river a bit before crashing.

This morning we made sure we were at the dealer when he opened at 9 and he already had the new Dynamax out in the back waiting for us. The negotiations were straightforward and not as long as might be expected and by noon Mo was the owner of a new Dynamax Coach. It’s just a hair over 25 feet long, only 4 feet more than the MoHo, but boy such a difference that makes. It’s like a Lexus version of a motor home, truly lovely and convenient and with all the bells and whistles. I have loved the baby MoHo, but this is like a dream thing, and yet still small and sweet, short enough to get into the parks, but just a bit bigger than the baby house, just enough that we don’t have to quite do the juggle of moving things around every day when we park. There is a slide-out with a leather sofa, and a kitchen that I can actually cook in, and a shower that doesn’t have a toilet in it. That’s pretty nice. We drove it this morning on the freeway in high winds and it rides like a dream, and doesn’t feel much different than the MoHo in that way either.

It was supposed to be ready by 4 so we took the baby house to San Antonio and did the River Walk, ate lunch in the Mercado at the oldest restaurant around that was an experience in itself, and then walked to the Alamo. Place where Davy Crockett fought and died.
San Antonio is filled with really old historic buildings and churches amidst all the new ones, and isn’t nearly as glitzy as Austin, but somehow it felt much better to me. I am not sure why there were no homeless people around, except perhaps they are elsewhere, since the people in most of San Antonio seemed to be a bit poorer so maybe everyone was in the same boat. There were some empty buildings here and there, closed up storefronts, but there still was good energy about the place that I enjoyed. The town itself also felt much more historic than Austin, and much more Hispanic in a different way. Maybe it was combination of the Mercado and the Alamo, and the fact that I didn’t see endless hills covered with huge houses. The area around San Antonio can be pretty boring, but the valleys along the Guadalupe River are lovely and there are bluffs and canyons in the limestone and sandstone that are dramatic.

Back through traffic and an accident that slowed us down a bit, but in the end it didn’t matter because the new MoHo wasn’t quite ready. Did the walkthrough and learned about all the goodies and finally the dealer offered to put us up in a really nice park so we wouldn’t have to do the move from MoHo 1 to MoHo2 in the dark. Both of us were pretty tired by then and the cats and dog were tired of being in the Geo all day while we did the dealing, so we took the offer and headed for one more RV Park. This one is called Hill Country RV and for some completely unknown reason it is full to the brim. Full to the point that the site they gave us was already filled and there weren’t any others until someone went driving around to find something for us. Saw a flier that said the rent was 285 a month so that explained why the place will filled with full-timers. Who knows how much a month would cost on the Guadalupe River, but I would much rather have been there than here by the interstate in New Braunfels. Who knows, when you are retired and full timing in the winter, maybe having MacDonald’s and Wal-Mart close by are a plus instead of a wild river.

So, so far, no photos of the new home, but tomorrow that will change. It will be ready by 10 or so and we can drive it and get used to it in the daylight rather than in the dark. I am looking forward to the new home a lot, but of course there is a bit of nostalgia tonight as we go to sleep for the last time in the Baby MoHo. It’s been a lot of fun for more than 3 years and has taken us a lot of places. I know the new house will be fun as well, and in the end, I am just feeling really lucky and blessed to have the chance to do this traveling thing. I dreamed of it for many years, but never could quite figure out how I was going to do it. Magic does happen, I guess