Lake Livingston

This was really two stops. The first was at the Lake Livingston State Park where we rode our bikes and I did a little fishing to no avail. You can see the result of my efforts above. But it was a pleasant few days on the waters edge and it was a pretty good size lake. You good see across most of it, but it had to be a very clear day.

The second stop was at the Escapee’s RV Campground just a couple of miles away. Escapee’s is one of the larger RV clubs in the nation and we wanted to give it a try. They have campgrounds, a magazine, arguably the best mail forwarding service in existence, trip planning service, emergency road service, RV insurance, all the regular stuff. What sets them apart are their campgrounds. They have the CARE Park here in Livingston, Rainbow parks, co-op parks, and just your everyday discount park. It’s the Care Park here that is unique. It’s called Rainbows End. They offer a place to park your RV and receive a level of adult day care when needed. It’s not a nursing home but it is a place to recover from an illness or surgery, or just because. They offer meals and one or two nurses in the facility. Most of the care is given by volunteers who receive a free RV spot for their efforts. There is a fee attached but its not prohibitive like a commercial facility would be. We took the tour and it is very nice. Something for us to consider 40 or 50 years down the road. Co-op parks are owned and operated by individuals who then either stay in their deeded lot or rent it out as they see fit, and Rainbow parks are available for daily, weekly, or monthly use. In addition to that there are parks all over that offer a 15% discount to SKiPs.

Most of the Escapees tradition is centered on social interaction of members. There are rallies, chapters by state and area, Birds of a Feather groups (BOFs), and just a plain old ‘get togethers’. In Livingston there was social hour every day at 4:00 PM. They had us up everyday telling them something about us. It was an introduction or an explanation of your tee-shirt or something, i.e., I explained my Oregon Fish and Wildlife shirt. Maybe even more than usual, SKiPs are a real friendly group of RV’ers. So we liked what we saw and had so much fun we decided to join.