The RVICS Village

Well it is official, we are " Village People "! We arrived on Wednesday, November 20, 2024 at our new home site #24 in the RVICS Village (Roving Volunteers in Christ's Service) in Smithville, Texas. This is the final destination on our third RV adventure that started back on Friday, April 5 of this year. The journey started in Livingston, Texas and took 229 days as we traveled through fly-over country to Canada and eventually Alaska then back through the Pacific Northwest to California, Arizona, New Mexico to Texas. A total of 99 stops along the 14,128 miles of various highways and byways.

Now Trinity has landed for the next three months for a well earned rest. She will get a much needed brake job and new wheel bearings while we are off the road. I'm hoping to have her detailed with a professional wash and wax spa treatment while we are here. I took the Thule box off the roof rack of the truck and it is stored in the 8x12 storage shed we have on our lot.

Thursday, we drove into Bastrop, Texas for lunch with a bunch of RVICS Village People at a great barbeque place called Southern Market BBQ. After lunch we ran some errands and Karen had a first visit with a local chiropractor. Bastrop is about 25 minutes northwest of Smithville and has most of the big box stores we would need for weekly shopping. Every Thursday a group from the village goes to Bastrop for lunch, so we will probably use that as our main shopping day in the future.

There are some things to get use to living here. We have some train noise living in the village; still getting used to it, especially at night. Other than the train noise it is very quiet here. There are 71 sites in the village and some residents have two sites in their name. We still getting to know our neighbors. All of the residents are either active project or retired RVICS members. Everyone is very friendly and helpful.

Our site faces to the east so we get the morning sun until about noon then the trees on the back of our lot filter the sun and provide some shade in the afternoon. So far the weather has been pleasant with a slight breeze and temperatures in the 70's.

On Friday Karen did the laundry at our community center while I washed the trailer and truck. Later in the day we rode our bikes into Smithville to see the town up close after stopping at the Dairy Queen for lunch. Smithville is located in southeastern Bastrop County near the Colorado River, 12 miles southeast of Bastrop and 42 miles southeast of Austin. The population was just 3,922 at the 2020 census.

Thomas Jefferson Gazley arrived in 1827 and set the pace of development for Smithville by building the first house and establishing the first store, which served incoming settlers. He later served in the Mexican government, helped write the Texas Declaration of Independence and the first Constitution, and became a true Texas hero. William Smith's family arrived several years after Gazley. They also owned a store and were early influences on the area, including the naming of Smithville where about seventeen families lived on the south bank of the Colorado River.

On December 2, 2006, at the city's 16th Annual Festival of Lights, Smithville broke the Guinness World Record for the world's largest gingerbread man. The record breaking "man" measured over 20 feet (6.1 m) long and weighed 1,308.5 lb (593.5 kilograms). Some of the ingredients used were 750 pounds of flour, 49 gallons of molasses and 72 dozen eggs. The pan used in the baking now stands as a monument at the James H. Long Railroad Park in Smithville.

Friday evening we joined two other couples from the village for dinner at Pockets Restaurant. We've only been in the village three days now, but it is beginning to feel like home. The villagers are so welcoming and we both are enjoying the new connections we are making with our brothers and sisters here. We thank God for this opportunity to be part of the RVICS community!