W18: See y’all next time, Texas!

Fireside View

Yes, there’s a fire every trip. This one at Bonham Lake State Park, TX:

Day 36: March 17

Time for that somewhat sad turn east and the slow journey home.

LOTS of big, big, big, corporate farms in this part of Texas. Yet, most of the towns, like Turkey (home of Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys) are mostly boarded up. Pretty Main Streets, but no businesses anymore.

Wow, Cotton is King here, as are oil wells everywhere, some just feet from the highway:

Saw a great McDonald’s sign: “BEEF in the heart of Texas” (sing it!).

And a “Pray for Peace” billboard just beside “Rifle Range Road”.

We got supplies in Wichita Falls (this is all new territory to us) and got a site (#12, $22 E/W) at Lake Arrowhead State Park. It’s a real fishing park, and our short bike ride (it started to thunder and rain) led us back, past the “Oil Well Pump Jack” a few yards from our site. We thought Bagpipes at Bon Echo Park in Ontario were bad, but this pounding well, 24 hours a day, may just beat it:

March Break is ending!

Here’s the view from my chair and a Cat’s Eye View, complete with setting sun:

Day 37: March 18

Since our ride yesterday was curtailed by rain, we decided to bike this morning: first to a one-mile birding trail then a three-mile ride through a horse trail and Disc Golf Course (very bumpy, maybe harder riding than in the canyons!):

And it started to rain again, so we decided to leave. This drive had some interesting sights:

and, as we approached Henrietta, we started to see a long parade of dozens and dozens of muddy trucks pulling trailers with muddier pickups, ATVs, Jeeps, and/or Monster Trucks. Finally, in Muenster (also home to Germanfest in April), we saw the signs for “Rednecks with Paychecks”, an Off-Road weekend that had just ended (you’ll need to look them up):

Things were starting to get green. We stopped quickly at the biggest, fullest Walmart we have ever seen, complete with a booming business of Coyote Pelt Buying in the parking lot:

Some observations:

• a store for Antiques and Firearms called “Past and Blast”
• Horse-breeding farms everywhere (Performance Horses)
• LOTS of “Conservative Republican” election signs
• SO many churches: big ones, small ones, denominations we’ve never heard of

We got to Bonham Lake State Park around 2:00 and hung out during the warmest and sunniest part of the day. We met Wisconsin neighbours who own a 2,000 acre Ranch and Dairy Operation. They are NOT pleased with Trump, so that’s reassuring.

Here’s the smoky view from Site 5, $20 E/W:

Day 19: March 19

We started the chilly morning with a two-mile Bird Walk (by the time we left the park, we identified 23 different birds-and two uncertainties- many impossible to photograph):

We had lunch, then took a five-mile bike ride. David is making me try and get more and more courageous on these wild rides, though I had to dismount once on a switchback!

Until 3:00, we were the only campers. Three more sites were gone by 4:00. But the sun shone, we got some exercise, saw some birds, and enjoyed another night in a new part of Texas.

Day 20: March 20

It was a day for driving: a little too cool to hang out. So we went to Paris and saw Daffodils and Jonquils in bloom in Reno, which is just west of Detroit.

It was bye bye Texas and hello Arkansas with a stop in Hope for BBQ:

It was time to visit Hot Springs, and we just passed through (too many people):

…and found our way to Lake Ouachita State Park. We got THE last site, again: #33, $28.50 for FHU, Senior rate. While I walked the park, I realized that THIS week is March Break in Arkansas. Lucky us.

Here’s the view of the campsite. It feels like Fall in an Ontario park, complete with cool temps, woodsmoke and leaves on the ground:

W18: ABC-Awesome Bison at Caprock!

Canyon View

Caprock Canyons is such a beautiful place. This is one of our favourite Texas State Parks:

Day 33: March 14

We’ve been so lucky with campsites and no reservations, but March Break at Caprock Canyons looked bleak. So I called and got a three-day site based on a cancellation, the last available for that long, and we were happy!

We gassed up in Clovis, home of the Motel 6, “Motel 7” and Super 8 all in a row. Oh, and a very nasty billboard about God and Jesus and Allah and Sharia Law and Murder. For the record, this would be illegal as Hate Speech in Canada.

The route to Caprock along Highway 86 was interesting and included miles and miles of cotton fields, Cattle feedlots, milking stations, corn fields, probably Winter Wheat and Wind Turbines!

Oh, and a surprise view of Sandhill Cranes:

Everything is so industrialized that you try to imagine what happens to the family farm. As I was writing that, we passed a sign that said “Farmers Feed the World”, but it seems that farmers have sold their ranches to conglomerates who make money from feeding the world. Just my thought.

We got to Caprock about 1:00 and set up in Site 21 ($17 E/W). We ate lunch, rode our bikes (rode for 4 miles), saw our first Bison/Buffalo and beautiful red landscape:

Here’s the view from my chair:

Day 34: March 15

Another sunny, though chilly morning. We rode again once it warmed up and saw lots of Bison/Buffalo:

Then, we heard a siren and saw a State Park pickup, complete with a feeder, arrive and lead the animals on a merry chase. The Ranger assured me they were more interested in him than me and that he was leading them away from the Cattle Guard since, last week, a calf had been caught!

I bought a t-shirt for ME and enjoyed the rest of the 5-mile ride. While at the Park Store, one of the Rangers said that the day before, someone had come in and asked where he could hunt Buffalo/Bison. Seriously.

We enjoyed the beer and the lazy afternoon at the campsite! Oh, and the nearby Prairie Dogs that we can hear all day!

Day 35: March 16

The wind howled all night and there were 28 mph winds this morning. Yikes.

The minute the wind subsided, we headed out for another bicycle ride. The Buffalo were very close to the trail. I was saying, loudly, “Keep pedalling, keep pedalling” as I rode through sand and by the beasts, and David thought I was saying “Hail Mary, Hail Mary” (okay, I may have been thinking it).

On our return journey, we had to stop for more than 20 minutes as the herd occupied the bike path and surrounding area. I picked the bush I would jump into if they attacked, but they ate, voided, rubbed, snorted and finally moved away!

Another lazy, sunny afternoon reading (and recovering!) marked our last day here at Caprock.

W18: Adios, New Mexico

Sunrise View

I was up early, and it was pretty at Brantley State Park near Carlsbad, New Mexico:

Day 30: March 11

Funny who you might meet at the Dump Station: some Gambrel’s Quail:

We stuck to Highway 9 to El Paso, hugging the Mexican border. In 70 miles, all we saw was two Border Patrol pickups. Here’s some wall!

We looped around El Paso through the Franklin Mountains then this “volcano”:

At the Guadalupe National Park, known for its mountain trails, we nabbed one of the last “parking lot RV sites” (#39, $8.00 unserviced). It was cold for our mini hikes:

…and we spent the rest of the late afternoon watching people go up and down the trail. My knees are not meant for climbing.

Here’s the view of our campsite from above:

Day 31: March 12

After a very quiet night, we headed to Carlsbad Caverns. Getting there before 9:00 proved to be wise. The single elevator was available immediately for both going down and coming back up, and there were very few people inside. Our second visit, and we love it here:

As we left the park, there was a steady stream of vehicles coming in, so we timed things perfectly for a March Break visit.

We got supplies in Carlsbad and pulled into the Brantley Lake State Park and got one of the last water and electric sites (#51, $14). We have been very lucky getting places during this busy week.

I hiked some and we, once again, enjoyed a quiet afternoon looking at these Scaled Quail (no longer furtive) and Desert Cottontails:

…and this view of our site:

Day 32: March 13

We got up to the sound of a whining dog, we thought. David discovered it was, in fact, this Roadrunner in a bush right outside our back window. Best pictures ever:

As we headed out, we saw several hawks (hard to get pictures for identification) and wondered why so many until we saw the “Bunny Buffet” on the road (guess they’re not really quick!). But, they DO breed like rabbits, so…

Our route went through Artesia, a very prosperous oil town. The Shell station is prosperous enough for this statue:

We saw signs for “Water for Sale” then miles of Pecan Groves that are watered by flooding.

Next stop, Roswell. Enough time for a stroll, some t-shirts, aliens and BBQ:

David always says that whisky is the best medicine when you’re sore or have a cold. This Walgreens proves it:

We followed the road to the Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge, ate our BBQ lunch and drove the loop checking out hundreds of geese, an Avocet and some water birds:

As we approached the Oasis State Park, we noticed that the desert has become grasslands very quickly. There was no problem finding a site (#13-on the 13th-$14 E/W), more Scaled Quail and this view (complete with horses) from my chair: