I finally did it. I retired after 35 1/2 years from Raytheon (legacy Texas Instruments). Scary and exciting all at once. Donna and I have been planning extended RV travel for over two years. In January 2016 I posted a write-up of our Galveston RV dry run where we rented a Class A and tried it out for a week. Skip forward to today. We have spent the last year upgrading/renovating a 2002 Holiday Rambler Endeavor 40 ft diesel Class A. We are very proud and I plan on writing up a description shortly. I am planning on emailing monthly updates about where we have been, where we are going, and our experiences. The goal is to have a short write-up to keep friends and family up to date. So many have expressed interest in keeping in touch and seeing how its going. I officially retired January 2, 2018. Unfortunately I spent from Thanksgiving until I retire dealing with family issues. My dad fell ill over Thanksgiving and eventually passed away on 12 December 2017. I miss him terribly. Over Christmas my brother was seriously ill and spent days in ICU before recovering. As a result January 2 was really the very beginning of our new retired life.
January has been a busy month saying goodbye, taking care of deferred projects, and getting the RV ready for the long adventure. Donna and I departed McKinney on Sunday 28 January for our “great adventure”. Our plan…. stop at McKinney Falls Tx State Park on our way to Corpus Christi and Big Bend. Reservations at Corpus and Big Bend parks are made. We are SOOO excited that over 2 years of preparation and planning is finally in motion. Yesterday and last night in McKinney Falls was super nice. Weather is PERFECT. The park is really nice and very busy. The falls weren’t flowing a lot but the hike and terrain was really beautiful.
Here are a few pics of Red Dog and I enjoying the park. Donna is the one taking the pics. The park isn’t really large but has a very nice 3 mile trail around the park and 3 or 4 other trails leading from campgrounds to upper and lower falls. There are a lot of really cool stone features created by flowing water and the falls are pretty neat. If there was more water flowing it could be spectacular. The campground was great with lots of room between sites, heavily wooded, and very clean. The campground was full and there were many day visitors. The trails were mostly paved or groomed, wide, and flat making it very popular with all ages. It’s a super nice location only 5 miles east of downtown Austin.
By the way, we went ahead and purchased a year pass to Texas State Parks for $70. It covers entrance fees for Donna and I for a year. That way we can sample all of the parks without even thinking about entrance fees.