Crystal Corral Stables - Crystal Beach, Galveston, Texas

 

Our first mistake was not calling 30 minutes before our arrival to let Lisa, our host, know we were on our way. We pulled into the main driveway and immediately realized that there was no way we could get through the arched entry - our trailer is too tall and too wide. We backed out with the help of Ethan, Lisa's son and moved one driveway down to access the electric and water hook-up.

The horses are in a large one acre pasture with two run-in sheds with cover.

This is their favorite type of accommodation.

My only complaint is the amount of manure. There was easily a week's worth of manure accumulated in both run-ins. It took me half an hour to get them cleaned out. It was a good two inches deep.

Most people don't clean out pastures of manure, but they bring in a tractor or some equipment to spread the manure out so it breaks down.

Lisa said she has a guy come out once a month to spread the manure, but looking at the pastures I would say it needs to be done at least once a week.

We have been cleaning the run-ins of manure each morning. There is a corner of the pasture that is dirt, so I have been dumping all the manure in a pile. That should make it easier for whoever to spread it if they ever decide to do it.

It's Thanksgiving week and our son, Daniel, is flying in to spend the holiday with us. He is bringing his girlfriend, Evie.

They are flying into Houston, so we drove to the airport to pick them up.

To get there, we rode the ferry from Crystal Beach/Bolivar Peninsula to Galveston and then on to Houston.

The ferry is free and it runs 24/7. There is a ferry every 20-30 minutes. The ferry has a Twitter feed, so you can get updates on the ferry on Twitter.

You drive onto the ferry. You can get out of the vehicle and walk around during the ride over.

It is about a 20 minute ferry ride.

By the time we had picked up Daniel and Evie and gotten on the return ferry it was dark. So, we got to see the lights of Houston riding the ferry back to Crystal Beach.

It was Thanksgiving eve, so I made Korean BBQ ribs and sticky rice in the trailer for their dinner.

The next morning we walked down to the beach with the horses. I wanted the horses to get used to being on the beach again. They actually did just fine.

Me, Daniel, Evie, and Ari on the beach. The horses have now seen the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.

This lovely water bird was in an estuary on the walk to and from the beach.

It's about a 15 minute walk from the camp.

Evie made lunch for Thanksgiving day. It was real Philippine food. We had Chicken Adobo and Pancet.

It was delicious. She made enough for an army.

We ate in a small open air pavilion.

There were turkeys.

There were goats.

There were chickens and roosters.

There were cats - that kept trying to jump on the table and eat our food.

And a large Great Bernese dog that was also hopeful for table scraps.

After lunch, we played a game of Jenga.

I had ordered all the Thanksgiving dishes from Whole Foods. We had picked up the order on the way to the airport. Now, I had to figure out how to heat up all the different dishes.

I had spoken to Lisa about this and she had said we could use the oven in the trailer where Daniel and Evie were staying, but it turned out they just had a microwave. Lisa offered that there was a range and oven in the pavilion area. We tried to use it but the rain had completely soaked the oven. It was so wet the pilot light wouldn't stay lit.

Lisa has a total of three RV trailers available for rent - all of different sizes.

We ended up using an oven in one trailer for the turkey; an oven in the second trailer was used for three of the sides; and we used our small convection oven for the candied yams.

We had planned on eating Thanksgiving dinner in the pavilion, but the rain had made it fairly unusable with lots of puddles; and all the animals - especially the cats - made it rather unpleasant.

So, we ended up eating at the largest table available in one of the trailers.

All the food turned out just fine. 

At times, I would forget which food was cooking in which trailer when I went to check on things, but overall it worked out.

Thanksgiving can be stressful under the best of circumstances, so I was just grateful to be sitting down with one of our sons and being able to enjoy a nice meal.

Rock'n E RV Park - Coldspring, Texas

 

The Rock'n E RV Park is outside Coldspring, Texas....about an hour northeast of Houston. There are two other horse motels in the area - Hickman Ranch and New Adventure. New Adventure has no trails - water and electric hook-up, Hickman Ranch adjoins the Sam Houston National Park and has access to about 14 miles of trails, water and electric hook-up and an RV dump. We picked the Rock'n E because it was full hook-up and sometimes it is nice to be able to take a long hot shower.

They don't have corrals for horses, but they do have a large field next to the campground where we were allowed to set up the portable corral. They also encouraged to let the horses out to graze and the horses definitely enjoyed that.

The property also is adjacent to the Sam Houston National Forest and they have developed their own trails which are rather nice. They have hidden small garden statues along the trails, so you have a bit of a treasure hunt trying to locate all the different decorations.

There is only about 30 minutes of riding - but you can reverse direction or take different loops to make it a bit longer.

The owners here were really kind. There is a small laundry room, public showers and restrooms as well.

While we stayed here, we got massages over at the nearby town of Livingston and we went into Houston to stock up on goodies from Trader Joe.

Ebenezer Park - Jasper, Texas

 

This was the nicest park. We loved staying here.

Our only complaint was the width of the concrete pad for our trailer. It was like threading a needle to get it centered on the pad. Our trailer is 8 ft wide and the pad is 8 ft 6 inches wide.

We had water and electric hook-up.

There is an RV dump at the campground.

The horses had these large corrals - easily 20 ft by 50 ft

Campsites had shaded picnic tables.

There were also hitching posts and hi-lines.

There is a bath and shower house as well.

Internet worked great on the Winegard.

We were the only people in the entire campground. 

It was a really relaxing place to be.

The trails are through the Angelina Forest, but we also rode on the beach by Sam Rayburn Lake. I get nervous on the beach because my horse doesn't like it.

The night before we were leaving, my horse had a gas colic. He wasn't eating or pooping. He was in paid. I gave him a couple of Bute pills. These are NSAIDs for horses. Horses don't like being in pain. He had a belly ache from gas. He needed to fart or belch or poop to relieve the pressure.

If a horse is in too much pain, they just give up and die.

The pain pills helped and by the next morning he had started pooping and was back to himself.

We will feed him lightly for the next day or two to give him a chance to recover.

A Couple of Days off the Trails - Cassell Arabians - Tyler, Texas

 Sometimes it is nice to take a few days off from riding. Mostly, we wanted to break up the drive as we head south for the winter.

We stopped at Cassell Arabians a horse motel about 30 minutes outside Tyler, Texs.

The owners breed and train Arabians.

Our horses had a nice large arena for turn out during the day.

At night, they got to sleep in pretty box stalls with clean shavings.

Their roomie was this cute little miniature horse. He would whinny every time we came into the barn, but we would have to peek over the rails to see him.

Our first night we went out for some Texas BBQ at Brisket Love. Ari gave their ribs two thumbs up.

The next day we went to the movies - a rarity right now for us. It was us and one other couple in the entire auditorium.

We had water and electric hook-up next to the house.

It was a little bit pricey - $25 for the hook-up and $25 per horse, but we appreciated the break. Also, Ari didn't have to clean up after the horses, so he got a break. We were able to buy some nice green coastal hay as well.

Buggy Whip Equestrian Campground - Cooper Lake State Park - Sulphur Springs, Texas

 

Next stop, Buggy Whip Equestrian Campground in Texas.

We were happy to be out of Oklahoma and into Texas.

Campsites provided high lines and hitching posts for horses, but no corrals.

So, we put up our portable corral with the shade cover. Thunderstorms expected in a day or so.

The shower house and bathrooms are in the background.

It was a back-in site on a concrete pad. Electric and water hook-up.

No cell service, but our Winegard worked OK with the T-Mobile SIM card.

Trails were marked as Novice, Intermediate and Challenging.

We rode the novice trails.

We knew rain was coming in, so we got our ride in before it hit. It was a bit overcast and cool, but otherwise fine weather for riding.

Years ago, Shaun and Daniel gave me a GoPro camera for my birthday. I had packed it for this trip, but I hadn't charged it up to use it. It can be time consuming to edit videos and upload them, but I figured it was well past time for me to use the GoPro. So, here is my first GoPro video. I forgot to clean the camera lens so there is a small smudge, but I will try to be better about using the GoPro.

This short video shows us riding on the Novice Trails by Cooper Lake.

We spent Wednesday in Commerce, Texas. This is the first town with a Chase Bank and I needed to go into the bank to close out Patrick's account.

Walking through the downtown area, spotted this outside a law office.

We stopped at the campground's RV dump on our way out of camp. It was an easy in and out.

California, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Texas.

21 states down and 27 to go.

Robber's Cave State Park - Wilburton, Oklahoma

 

Robber's Cave State Park came highly recommended by a lot of equestrians. 

When we arrived on a Saturday, we were one of three equestrian campers at the campground. All the other campers were non-equestrians. They were noisy and annoying.

By Monday morning, we were the only campers left in the entire campground and it was peaceful and quiet.

Getting to our campsite was a bit of a challenge. The road in was quite narrow and there were trees on both sides. It is a back-in site and it is not laid out well for large trailers.

We had water and electric hook-up. There is an RV dump at this campground. There are also showers, bathrooms, and a playground for kids.

The campground also features a mounting block for wheelchair users.

It is located in the middle of the campground.

We were warned the trails here are rocky, so we put boots on both horses. Lennox is wearing Cavallo boots. Mercutio has Scoot Boots.

We use socks and liners to prevent sores from the boots rubbing on their ankles.

As promised, the trails were rocky, but not steep or too bad. However, it is turkey hunting season, so about half the trails were closed to riders. I didn't know that this was happening. They close the trails from mid-October to the end of December.

I was a little frustrated because the trails we could access took us parallel to the main road, so we were subjected to a lot of traffic noise. We weren't close to the road, but it was annoying.

When we got back, I asked one of the other equestrian campers if she could take my husband out hoping she could show him some better trails.

They were gone a good three hours. When they got back, Ari said it was an awful ride. Apparently, it was a mother and daughter and they did not get along.

The daughter spent half the ride complaining about her horse - a 6 yo mare that kept spooking.

The mom's saddle was not cinched properly and Ari was worried she was going to get into a wreck. He offered to fix it for her, but she refused.

Halfway through the ride, the women swapped horses. The mom thought her daughter would be more comfortable on her mount. 

So, then the daughter complained for the rest of the ride about how she was constantly having to kick that horse to get him to go.

Ari also noticed that the tack they were using looked brand new. He thought they were both inexperienced riders.

He also said the trails weren't that great, but Lennox had a good time.

So, Monday we decided to take the day off from riding and do a hike to see Robber's Cave.

We drove from the campground to the trailhead that takes you to Robber's Cave.

There is a small cave at this trailhead that you can go inside and check out. 

We followed the trail markers up to the top of the ridge. At that point, you look for orange trail markers to guide you to the cave.

It is roughly a 45 minute hike to get to the cave. It is rocky and there are some steep sections.

We got lost several times trying to figure out the trail.

We found the Stone Corral first.

This area was used by Jesse James and the Younger gang to hide out.

They stole horses.

They used the Stone Corral to keep their stolen horses.

The corral is basically a blind with a perimeter of stone walls.

It is about 1/4 mile from the cave. You get to a section of the trail where it divides - with orange markers going down one way and up another.

If you go down, you reach the Stone Corral.

If you go up and climb over some boulders, you will locate the cave.

The gang probably posted lookouts with the horses since it is a distance from the cave.

On the trail heading towards the cave

At the entrance of Robber's Cave.

There is enough room inside for about 20 people.

You could easily build a fire at the cave entrance to cook food and for warmth.

Belle Star, who was also a horse thief, hid here with the Younger gang more than once.

The local Conservation Corps built these stairs to help people get down to the cave.

The cave was not easy to find. Even when we were only yards from the cave, we were still trying to figure out where it was.

No law men ever found the outlaw's hideout while it was being used. 

Ari pointed out that because you have to climb over rocks and boulders to access the cave, you wouldn't leave tracks.

Likewise, to get to the Stone Corral, you would ride over so many rocks and rock faces, there would not be any hoof marks.

Altogether it took us a few hours to hike up to the cave and get back down. It was frustrating to locate. We kept meeting other hikers who were just as bewildered as we were, looking for the cave.

This would be a fun thing to do with kids - have them help you locate where the outlaws hid from the law.

It was definitely a challenge.