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!

 

Best Friends Forever

Me and my Best Friend Forever, Anita

We are in Big Spring, Texas where I moved when I was 10 years old and left when I was 16.  My father was in the Air Force and was stationed here at Webb AFB – which has been closed for years now.

When I was in the 9^th grade at Runnels Junior High School I met Anita F. Horne and she became my best friend.  Along with Annette, the three of us got into lots of trouble together, drank some beers, smoked some cigarettes and found BOYS!  We spent the next 3 years making lots and lots of memories.  And then I moved away.  About 15 years ago, Anita managed somehow to find me again via the internet.  We have stayed in touch ever since and I actually visited here some 8 years ago.

Yesterday after we got hooked up, Anita and her husband of 50 years (yes, I knew Don back then also) came over for cocktails.  Nothing has changed….Anita looks the same and is just a sweet a person as ever.  Kirby had never met them so I got to show him off a bit.  He and Don hit it off right away….they both have a do-it-myself background and both love RVing. 

And then, because we were still hitched up, they invited us to go with them on a tour of memories.   We went to look at my old house, my grade school (which has been rebuilt and is beautiful), the Junior High School, the High School, and the streets and houses that no longer look the same but we could see in our minds just as they were back then.  It was a true walk down Memory Lane with two wonderful people that I love dearly!  Thank you so much for really and truly being my Best Friend Forever, Anita!

Big Spring High School.  I moved to Colorado before we graduated but I will always love my Steers!

Looking straight up at the Settles Hotel in Big Spring.  Almost 50 years ago this hotel was in in terrible disrepair.  They were so desperate for business that they rented a ballroom to a bunch of teenagers.  That was my going away party.  No adults were involved.  It was such a wonderful act of love by my friends that they did this for me - raised the money and put on a great send off for me. 

The hotel has recently been completely renovated and it is stunning. 

Anita and I posed on the graceful staircase.

And we posed in the Ladies Room.

This is the Grand Ballroom.  It is an exact replica of the same room in 1930.  Is it awesome or what?

See the pretty lady in the picture?  That is Virgina Wilson who was my friend and classmate in high school.  It was her son who led the renovation of the Settles Hotel.

Walmart!

We are sitting in Big Spring, Texas in a Walmart parking lot “Waiting On Weather”.  We traveled a long way yesterday and ended up in my childhood home.  I have a lot of pictures and a lot of stories to tell you.

We departed Las Cruces before nine yesterday morning.  The Coachlight Motel and RV Park was certainly acceptable.  Easy in and easy out, we never even unhitched.  We planned to travel as far as Pecos, TX.  What a long and boring drive west Texas is.  Following are some pictures from our drive through El Paso.  It always seems to go on forever.  It looks like a very wealthy city with a lot of thriving industry but right across the border you can see Mexico.  What a contrast.

View of I-10 driving through El Paso, TX

From the freeway we could see Mexico

Then it was into the flats with nothing for miles and miles.  We left Interstate 10 and took off on I-20 which goes right through Big Spring.  We had considered stopping in Van Horn but it was still early so we kept going.  Next was Pecos and we pulled into the RV park I had chosen as the best of the bad.  It was BAD.  And no one was in the office.  We left!  No problem, we will just keep going and stop in Odessa.  I found a place online that sounded pretty good and gave them a call.  The woman who answered the phone didn’t know anything about anything and was making me crazy.  After about 10 minutes on the phone with her I knew it was never going to work.  She didn’t know for sure if she had room and she couldn’t tell me how to get there.  We drove on past Odessa and headed for Big Spring.

Another border check.  We were asked if we were US Citizens and then told to go one.

"Nothing" on I-20 in west Texas

And here we are in a Walmart parking lot!  It really is a cool way to stay somewhere and I think we might do more of it.  It is very handy to have Walmart right in our backyard.  We visited yesterday after getting set up and purchased some fried chicken for our supper.  Not the best in the world but I was starved! The only problem here was that this particular corner of the lot also seems to be the place where the teenagers meet to buy and sell their drugs.  They have expensive noisy cars and big radios.  Once I decided that they were no threat to us or our rig or truck, I got the earplugs and went fast asleep.  And awoke to a wind storm.  We will be staying here for another night and hoping the wind is gone by tomorrow morning. 

Here we are sitting in the Big Spring, TX Walmart parking lot

Catalina State Park, AZ

I just realized that I never posted about Catalina State Park.  We left this morning and really enjoyed our stay there.  We needed to get on our way because we have a schedule and we have a due date to be in Charleston for Easter.  If not, we would have stayed longer.  We took a couple of short walk/hikes and a couple of bike rides.  We didn't even begin to see the park. 

When I called at the last minute to see if they had room for us the park ranger said he could put us in a site with no hook-ups for the first night and then we could move to another spot with electric and water for the next two nights.  We grabbed it up!

Our first site really was beautiful.  Difficult to get into and a bit short for us but private and lovely.

We got all settled and headed off to see our friends Mac and Consuelo and our day with them at Oracle State Park.  By the time we got back, we were tired and the wind was blowing and it was cold out (by our standards) so we didn't really get to enjoy the setting.  Then next day we watched the folks in our next space until they left and then quickly hitched up and moved.  We would have stayed in this first place but someone had it reserved so we had no choice but to move.  The next site was easy to get into as it was a pull-through but was much more open and just "in a row" with all the other RV's.  But it still was a large space and very nice.

We needed the remainder of the day just to vegg. And so that was what we did.  Then on Thursday morning we headed out for Jake's morning walk.  I loved it!  I will share some of my photos with you here so you can see what we enjoyed so much!

The above photo is something that kind of made me crazy.  This park has an equestrian center and they must get a lot of horses because all of the trails near the park are totally ruined by them.  These large animals tear up the trails and leave them pure sand or dusty dirt.  AND they leave their poopy all over the place.  Now, I have a dog and I am required to clean up after him.  But the horses poop all over the trails and I had to walk around it all the time.  I think they should be required to wear a poopy bag like they do in cities and also STAY OFF at least some of the trails and leave them nice hard packed trails for old people like me!  What do you think?

On the Road - South Arizona

 We left Catalina State Park this morning and made it through the Tucson rush hour traffic in about 30 minutes so that is not too bad.  It was quick and easy to get out of the park.  We seem to have our routine down pretty well and don't talk about it too much - we just do it. Jake of course was in the truck and waiting.  We made a quick stop at the dump station and then were on our way.

The roads are OK and the wind isn't howling yet.  Hopefully it won't.  We are not certain how far we will go today - either Deming or Las Cruces, New Mexico.  If we go to Las Cruces we will again stop at Coachlight RV Park where we stayed last year.  Nice and basic for a quick stop.

This is one of my favorite rest stops and I was looking forward to stopping again.  The sky is the same blue as it was a year ago and the rocks are still awesome.  It is on I-10 in south Arizona.  We are back in the flats again with not much pretty to look at.