CORPS OF ENGINEERS HICKORY CREEK at LEWISVILLE LAKE, TX

October 7 – 13, 2010

It was a short trip south to the Corps of Engineers Hickory Creek Campground at Lewisville, TX, near our friends, Elmer and Sandra Jenny, in Bedford, TX. We arrived on a Thursday and were pleased at the typical neat and clean COE Campground; if they provided sewer hookups they would be the best deal around, but unfortunately, sewer hookups are few.



Welcome to Hickory Creek Park



 We called our friends and made arrangements to have lunch together on Friday. Meanwhile, thanks to a list of good sites from Harris Benoit, we had reserved a site with a little view of Lewisville Lake and just relaxed in the beautiful Texas air.

Friday, we all met at Babe’s Chicken Restaurant in Roanoke, one of 9 branches of the chain, for one of their special chicken lunches. With all her health issues, we were really pleased to see Sandra looking so fit and in really high spirits. Lunch was delicious and we all enjoyed it, as we sat and visited for quite a while.


Elmer (Fox) and Sandra Jenny looking good!

   Fran and Sandra went next door to shop at a little boutique. They returned empty-handed, a rarity!

On our way home we spied what looked like a Thai Buddhist Temple in the distance, so we drove by and sure enough there was a whole compound with a number of Thai buildings and gardens.

Since there was no-one there and the gate was open, we drove in through the ornamental gate and looked around the compound. I had spent some time in Thailand some years ago, and while the architecture was somewhat garish and colorful, it was nonetheless very beautiful and quite similar to the Wats (temples) found in Thailand.

Unfortunately, while we did spot one Monk in his typical saffron robe, we never did find anyone to ask about this beautiful facility here in the middle of Texas.













If you should want to visit this outstanding monastery, the address is Wat Buddharatanaram, 13075 Sehepayak Rd., Keller, TX. (There is more information available on the internet)



Saturday, the Jennys invited us to dinner at their home and showed us the many home improvements they had made in the last year. Elmer (Fox) is always up to something to keep busy since he has sold his motorhome and does not RV any longer. After dinner we all settled back in their overstuffed recliner chairs and continued catching up on all the latest gossip. Sandra made her famous pork loin –delicious as always!


Somewhat reminiscent of our winter activities in AZ, we again met the Jennys for breakfast at Mimi’s in Lewisville on Sunday morning and we certainly never seem to run out of more things to talk about.



At Lewisville Lake

 Monday was a day off so on Tuesday we went to the Grapevine Mills for her favorite pastime, “window shopping,” and then to see the movie “RED”, which we liked and recommend to all our friends, much (non-bloody) violence but no sex (yuck) or nudity (more yuck).

We prepared to leave the Dallas area on Wednesday morning on another beautiful Texas morning, heading south to the COE Campground at Waco, TX.

See y’all down the road! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~George and Fran