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Waco, TX. Home to Baylor University, the Brand Davidians, and alllll the shiplap. We reserved a campsite on Lake Waco for several days this week to allow for some exploring. Our whole family loves “Fixer Upper” so we knew we wanted to pay a visit to the Gaines’ crown jewel, The Silo District. We also wanted to check out the relatively new Waco Mammoth National Monument, and get some fishing in, of course!

Our first evening at the campsite, the kids tried to get caught up on schoolwork but quickly discovered that we were in a dead zone for our hotspot. We put the chromebooks away and instead got out the paints, and the kids had fun collecting sticks, leaves, rocks, and wild pecan shells to paint. We needed to make a run to town for diapers and a few other essentials, and decided to grab dinner at George’s, a favorite spot for Baylor funs. As we headed into the store after filling up on Tex Mex and burgers, we noticed some dark clouds quickly building to the west of us.

We hurried back to the trailer and settled in for the night… ha ha. We suddenly were in the midst of a incredible lightning storm and a torrential Texas downpour. The thunder was so loud I could feel the vibrations in my bones!! It was stunning and terrifying all at once, seeing the lightning strike the huge trees all around our rig. Ryan and I both ended up with some extra kiddos and pups piled in with us. 

Lesson learned for us tonight: buy a dang surge protector! We had just discussed this topic with some friends a few days before, and knew that we needed to pick up a surge protector for the RV. We’d been cheating it a bit by plugging important electronics intosmall protectors inside, basically just preventing them from being fried by power fluctuations when we were plugged in at campsites. However, this obviously doesn’t protect the RV wiring and appliances, and it definitely doesn’t protect those things if we get a lightning bolt through the campground wiring! We had actually driven past a couple of RV sales & repair places on the way into Waco, but decided to just pick up a protector after we settled in and could disconnect the trailer. Whoops. Instead, Ryan ran outside in the downpour (and lightning show!!) to unplug our rig from the campground pedestal. Yikes! Moral of the story: spend the money and get the surge protector. (You can see the one we have on our Resources page.)

After a few days of relaxing at the lake, we packed up our bikes + kayaks and pulled the trailer into San Antonio. Since we only drove about an hour to our next campsite, we decided today would be fun to film the set up of our rig. It was so hot and we were cracking ourselves up!!! We saved the “tutorials” in our Instagram highlights (@theadventuringsmiths) and will keep adding more. Follow us for all the best tips on how to be an amateur RVer, ha!! 

San Antonio is a vibrant city, full of life and history. We walked to The Alamo, and although visitors are not allowed to enter the building currently because of COVID, we had fun reading the historical markers and interpretive boards around the grounds. After an evening stroll all along the Riverwalk and Plaza, we took a quick drive to New Braunfels to meet up with some friends that we hadn’t seen in a decade!

If You Go: San Antonio really deserves a couple days stay, longer than we gave it on this trip. In addition to the wonderful River Walk, there are also tons of fun places for adults and kids alike! Check out the Visit San Antonio website.

When we purchased our rig (We’re still working on a name… we’ll keep you posted!!!) it was somewhat of a spontaneous decision… that’s apparently just how we roll. We had been discussing different types of RVs for a while, and had settled on a travel trailer as the best choice for our current needs. I (Mattie) really wanted a motorhome for the convenience of traveling with kiddos. When everything is right inside the actual vehicle you travel in, it makes potty stops and naps and snack time a heck of a lot simpler. However, we knew that we’d want to do lots of exploring outside of the campgrounds, which meant we’d need a tow-behind vehicle if we purchased a motorhome. This made the appeal drop drastically, as our flexible family size (shoutout to other foster + adoptive families!!) means we can’t all just fit in a jeep. Plus, Ryan wasn’t thrilled about the idea of another motor to maintain. We decided that ideally we needed a heavy-duty truck and a bumper-pull trailer. 

Long story longer, we ended up finding a crew cab truck on an auction website, and I took a gamble. (Being stuck at home during the first few months of COVID made me even more crazy that usual, apparently.) While Ryan was at work one day, I started bidding on a retired mining company truck with a busted front drive shaft, a filthy crew cab, and an auxiliary diesel fuel tank. I may have shortened my life span by a few weeks, but I won the dang trunk!! With some serious detail work and a $600 fix for the drive shaft, plus a couple tubes of JB Weld, we had ourselves a workhorse for pulling our future home on wheels.

Now that we had the vehicle, we needed to find the trailer. Ryan and I searched all over craigslist and RV sites, looking for a deal. RVs are expensive!!! Randomly one early Sunday morning when I was awake at 2:00 am, I visited a local RV sales website and checked out their “Red Tag” clearance page. That’s when I saw her… and the next day I casually convinced Ryan to stop by the sales lot on our way home from church. The rest is history, I guess… our “let’s stop by and check out this trailer” turned into our new home!! We got a fantastic deal on a brand new trailer. I speculated that it’s because she’s so long; most shoppers looking for a trailer this big go with a fifth wheel. She’d been sitting on the lot for 6th months, and I like to think she was just meant for us. 😉

So back to the story at hand… after a quick stop at a KOA in San Angelo to break up the drive, we pulled into a Thousand Trails RV Park just outside of San Antonio with our glorious rig. An unexpected perk of purchasing our trailer new: we were gifted a one year membership with Thousand Trails. I didn’t know a thing about them, but it turns out TT is one of the largest networks of RV resorts and campgrounds in North America. And we can stay in them for free!! The first park we stayed at was right on Medina Lake, and the kids were thrilled to discover that the park owners had a herd of whitetail deer that they’ve hand-fed for years living all around the resort. This might have been an all-trip highlight for our animal-loving girlie. 

The lake itself was probably a highlight for everyone thus far, because we happened to time our stay with one of the highest heat advisories this summer. Whew!! We spent hours and hours just floating in the water, fishing and kayaking here and there. While the resort itself was a little rundown, we didn’t mind since it was a free stop for us, and a chance to cool off from the Texas heat!!

Honestly, there’s not a whole lot to reccomend about this RV “resort.” But what I DO recommend: when you’re traveling full time, sometimes you just need a couple days to relax at a lake n the middle of nowhere. There weren’t any sites to see, lines to stand in, or deadlines to meet. And it was just what our whole family needed!