"Getting There is Half the Fun" is the adage we live by as full-time RVers. You have to enjoy the trip as well as the destination, because there are going to be some road trip days. Sometimes those days are amazing, sometimes not, but they are always worth it. Even on the worst road day, we have our house with us at the end of it and we're always heading on to the next adventure.
It was still tornado season in Colorado when we were ready to leave Port Aransas at the end of May, so we had to choose our route carefully, based on watching the weather. We actually stayed a couple of weeks longer in calm and cozy Port A than we'd originally planned, waiting out some really bad weather to the north of us. By the time we left, the local papers were full of tips on preparing for the coming hurricane season, which starts the first of June. You've got to hate it when those two seasons overlap. On this leg of the journey, we had a lot of thunder and lightning and a few nights of big hail -- but no damage at all. It was a nasty spring in so many places this year -- we were fortunate.
On our first night out of Port A, we stayed overnight at Armadillo Junction RV Park near Kerrville. This is in the Texas hill country -- like the Gulf Coast, this isn't the typical Texas that people from the Northwest tend to imagine. It's green and rolling hills. The Guadaloupe River flows nearby. We like this area and have stayed there longer on past trips. But it was terribly hot this stop -- definitely time to head for cooler climes.
Next we stopped at San Angelo State Park. Texas State Parks are excellent -- we had purchased an annual pass on our way to Port A. This makes the cost quite reasonable (and we like the idea of supporting the parks). This one is on a huge reservoir, lots of birds even this late in the season. While settling in for the evening, we saw a jack rabbit that we honestly thought for a moment was a small deer. Huge. Walking later on, we saw a badger heading for its den.
We had decided to stay a couple of days here because we thought it would be busy on the weekend, with school out and Memorial Day. It wasn't -- we practically had the park to ourselves -- but it gave us the opportunity to explore the area a little bit.
Just before getting to the state park, we had driven past the tiny, tiny town of El Dorado. This little village and the town of San Angelo had been much in the news just before we got there, because it is where the State had removed FLDS children from the El Dorado polygamist compound. The courthouse where the hearings were held is in San Angelo as is Fort Concho, the frontier era fort where the mothers and children stayed for a time. We took a quick tour of the Fort, which has now been restored to its status as a historical museum.
This whole area is quite isolated and it was interesting to see these places. News-people from back east must have felt like they were in another world. We kind of did.
We stayed the next night at Amarillo Overnight RV Park. This is an appropriate name for the park. It's nothing outstanding but perfectly adequate for one night and easy to find. You can take a Texas limousine from the RV park to a restaurant called "The Big Texan" in downtown Amarillo. So this park and the restaurant (for which "big" is a good description, both of the restaurant and the food) are about all we know about this city besides the song "Amarillo High Morning."
There sure are a lot of Texas cities that have songs written about them! (I just have to "sing" a bit of them when we drive through El Paso, Laramie or Amarillo....I'm pretty sure Bill wishes that those songs didn't exist -- as I can't carry a tune in a bucket!)
Amarillo to Colorado took us across this skinny little part of Oklahoma. There is nothing in that part of that state but dead looking grass. No towns. We had to stop quickly though just so that we could say we'd been on Oklahoma soil. I think it only took us about an hour to cross that panhandle.
The first night in Colorado we stayed in a town called Lamar at a park called Lamar Sportsman. The sport of choice here was horseback riding -- and the stables were rather close to the RV spots. Hot -- and flies. This was not the Colorado we know and love -- and have already posted about (extensively actually).
We got to the "real deal" the next day and we had a wonderful time as always. In case you missed those earlier posts -- or just want another look at the beautiful part of Colorado where we stay -- click on these earlier links:
http://travelingrainvilles.typepad.com/traveling_home/2007/11/colorado.html
http://travelingrainvilles.typepad.com/traveling_home/2007/12/more-from-color.html
http://travelingrainvilles.typepad.com/traveling_home/2008/06/sculpture-gardens.html
http://travelingrainvilles.typepad.com/traveling_home/2008/06/colorado-in-june-2008.html
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