We are easily entertained back home in Livingston, Texas

We had a beautiful camp site at Lake Somerville State Park. Is was so nice that we seemed to have company every day. This armadillo was really enjoying the shady goodness under our trees, and didn't even notice when Denisa was taking pictures just a few feet away.

In fact, he turned and headed right towards her for another picture. Denisa can take pictures of an armadillo for a long time, because she is easily entertained.

We loved our campsite at Lake Somerville, but obviously so does everyone else. It is nearly impossible to get a weekend camping spot at a Texas state park.  So even though we liked Lake Somerville state park, it was time to leave that field of bluebonnets and head down the road.

So for this weekend we are headed to a private campground near Riverside, Texas. Heartland RV Park is a very nice Passport America half-price campground with full hook-ups. Our journey through Texas has been a nice blend of camp sites at state parks during the week and private parks on the weekend as we make our way north. From this campground, we realized we were just a few miles from the east shores of Lake Livingston. Does that sound familiar? 

It's familiar because Livingston, Texas is our mailing address. The first question we get when people find out that we live in our motor home is, "How do you get your mail?" We always explain that it goes to our address in Livingston, where it waits until we have the Escapees mail service forward it to the closest post office where we are wandering. Since we are so close to Livingston, we're going to save some postage and pick up our mail directly. Denisa stood in line outside the mail pick-up window along with several other full-timers that were staying at the Escapee campground.

Actually, the main reason we want to pick it up in person is the very important packages that came in yesterday. We mailed in our passport renewals almost two months ago, and they arrived via certified mail to Livingston yesterday. What great timing for us to be here the next day!

We walked through the Escapees campus while we were visiting. It's made up of a large campground that can be rented to any RVer (but has a discount for Escapee members). There are also stick-and-brick houses that are owned by Escapee members who use this as their home base. All of these houses have parking and hook-ups for their RV, as most of the residents spend a good part of their year traveling. We spent some time camping here during our first year of travel, as we were getting our Texas residency finalized.

After picking up our mail, we were off to Lake Livingston State Park for the day. We are in the piney woods of east Texas, known for their tall pines that make Mark look very short.

Following the ranger's suggestion, we made the walk on the one-mile loop of the Pineywood Nature Trail Boardwalk. We didn't see any frogs at the frog pond, or birds at the bird overlook. But we were entertained by this lime green lizard on the boardwalk hand rail.

Our lizard friend was exercising, doing push-ups and then inflating the bright pink bellow under his chin. The bellow disappears as quickly as it appears. With all that motion, it's hard to get a clear picture before the chin bellow is gone.

We followed him from the hand rail to a nearby tree. We are obviously easily entertained when a lime lizard keeps our interest so long.

We were glad to hear that all of the trails here are flat and covered with pine needles. Bikes aren't allowed on the boardwalk, but they are welcomed everywhere else in the park.

So we rode a nice long loop trail that went up on the Trinity Trace Trail, and back down on the Bakba Trail. This five-mile loop runs the length of the road within the state park. We are obviously easily entertained with a nice level bike ride in a beautiful location.

We have to say that the drive to Livingston is a little boring, as those tall pines completely shroud everything around you. If you look to your right you can see trees. If you look to your left you can see more trees! It's a little like driving through a long green tunnel in this part of east Texas.

So when we popped into a grassy clearing, we couldn't help but notice the activity on the side of the highway. What is going on here?

Like we often do, Mark made a u-turn and we went back to check it out. We could see people suited up in bee-keeper suits unloading colorful wooden boxes from the truck. What can we say, this is more evidence that we are easily entertained.

We noticed that the white pickup beside the truck was beginning to back up, and we needed to get out of his way. But he motioned for us to stay. The driver was actually a very nice man who came to see if we needed anything. We introduced ourselves to Jasen Albrecht, owner of Albrecht Angel Honey of South Dakota. While his bees spend the summers in South Dakota, they prefer the winters in Texas. These bees are also trucked to California for almond season, as the farmers there need a couple hives per acre of trees to successfully pollinate their crop. These are well-traveled bees!

Jasen told us more about propagating queen bees, leasing fields of clover, and their honey business headquarters in South Dakota. When we asked if there was any place local where we could buy his honey, he turned back to his truck. He came back with a bottle of Angel Honey that he wouldn't let us pay for. How wonderful!

Mark eats honey almost every day, so this is liquid gold to him. It was especially neat that it was packaged in an angel-shaped container that was designed for this company.

We liked it even more when we saw it had a bible verse--John 3:16--molded into that special design. 

Jasen encouraged us to drive our pickup closer so we could watch the bees up close, and of course we did. He told us to keep our windows rolled up so we wouldn't get any bee passengers, and he even offered to suit us up in bee keeper suits. But we decided to stick with watching from the pickup. He explained that this is the growing season for his bees, and they are outgrowing their hives. So today they are unloading additional boxes for them to grow into. We often see "clover honey" on the label of honey we buy. It was fun to see the red blooms of the clover right beside the boxes.

A close-up shot of the bee boxes is blurry from all the buzzing of bees around them. But it shows that the bees need more room, as they all can't get inside the old boxes.

After our bee entertainment, we headed on down the road. We stopped at an overlook that Jasen recommended for our last look at the huge Lake Livingston. He knows this area well, as he and his family live in Livingston when the bees are in Texas. He was right, this is a nice view of Lake Livingston  and its Spanish-moss-draped trees.

Hungry by now, we decided to stop in the tiny town of Coldspring, Texas, based on a hand-made sign that Denisa spotted on the roadside. A place called "The Mason Jar" has to be good, right? We ordered their signature chicken fried steak, fried onion rings, and fried okra. That turned out to be the most fried food we had consumed in a very long time. The cafe is across the street from the County court house. We like the fact that we could see the electrical cords going out to the crosses over each entrance. These crosses are obviously lit up at night on all four sides of the court house here in Coldspring. We consider that a blessing.

It was a long day by the time we made the circle back to the motor home. Today, we headed out the door to pick up our mail. But we never know what blessings we will encounter along the way. It's good to be easily entertained as we continue to wander all kinds of God's wonders.