West Texas to Louisiana

After two days in the Walmart parking lot in Big Spring, Texas and the west Texas wind we headed east on Interstate 20 and watched the scenery turn green.  We spent the night in a little suburb of Fort Worth at Oak Creek RV Park.  What a nice RV park and a treat for us.  We had plenty of everything – water, electric, sewer and I got to do laundry.  We haven’t been on the road but 9 days but I feel we have been gone from Yuma for weeks.  Our life has changed so dramatically and, I have to quote Kirby here, “We are back where you can wear the air.”  It is somewhat humid but coming from Arizona, it feels VERY humid.  And it is green.  The trees are just beginning to leaf out and look like fine lace.  We are very happy.

Here we are in Weatherford, TX at Oak Creek RV Park. 

Oak Creek RV Park in Weatherford was big and beautiful.  The oak trees were just beginning to bud out and I can imagine how lovely it will be when they are in full leaf.  There are many pull-through sites and everything is cement.  Cement streets, cement pads and small cement patios at each site.  Plus of course the big oak trees.  (If you decide to visit, please call first and get instructions on entering the park.)  I was pleased to see a nice clean laundry facility and was tired but since I knew we were heading to a federal campground for a few days, that I should do a couple of loads.

This is NOT a picture of the traffic in Dallas/Fort Worth!  It is much further west of there and we were getting excited about all of the green trees and the grass.

Our route took us through the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area.  Hopefully that will be the largest city for some time.  Poor Kirby…..it is not easy watching all the traffic, traffic signs and listening to me and the GPS at the same time.  But once we were through it, all he really had to look out for were the pot holes in the road.  Actually I-20 in Texas was pretty good but once we hit Louisiana it fell apart – almost literally!  Part of the reason we took this route instead of I-10 south of here is that we KNEW that road was terrible.  We were hoping I-20 would be better.  We are not far into Louisiana so maybe it will improve.

This is Beaver Dam Campground where we have a big camping space and total quiet!

It was a long day but we finally made it to Beaver Dam Campground in Kisatchie National Forest.  We turned off the freeway at a small town called Minden and headed north on a small winding road into the backcountry.  After only one time of having to negotiate a U-turn we finally found this hidden gem!  It is very small with excellent campsites and wonderful views.  We are in site #20 with a very large yard, a level asphalt pad, a picnic table, fire ring and a wonderful view of the water.  We have no neighbors and Jake is in heaven.  Last night Kirby grilled steaks and we had dinner outdoors with a bottle of red wine.  I don’t think it gets any better! 

Our view from our site at Beaver Dam Campground.  It is cloudy so it doesn't do it justice but we think it is beauiful!

The forecast here is for rain so we decided to run our errands in town today and then hunker down with our books the next few days.  Hopefully it won’t rain too much.  Minden is a nice southern town with beautiful old homes.  I wish I had taken my camera….shame on me.  We checked out Save A Lot and Brookshire for some groceries, picked up some DEF for the truck and then fueled up so we will be ready to go when the time comes.  This is one of the things I love most about our lifestyle – visiting new communities and talking to the locals.  The young woman at the store couldn’t believe we had never heard of Brookshire stores and didn’t have a scan card.  And have you ever heard of Bubba Cola?  We never had!