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:
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