November 16, 2015 Travel thru Texas

We woke to rain and fog this morning but packed up and headed west anyway.

Here we go:

This looks like an interesting place:

We stayed on US-380 most of the day.  Once we passed Denton, Texas the towns were few and far between.  The topography went from rolling hills to flat and then back to rolling hills again.  We went thru farms then oil rigs then both then each – :

How about this BIG guy – we saw him from a long way off:

What a cutie, isn’t he.

It is amazing to us to see so far with the flat land.  So when we saw this Texas Longhorn, he was about 2 miles away.  He was HUGE when we got close to him.

I mention the “flat land” because this past summer we had three separate visits from our RV friends (six people total) and one of the first things they said to us was “there are so many hills here”.  I had never really thought about it because after being our west, our hills are very minor.

We also met a woman from Plano when we were in Cumberland Gap NP and she said she felt claustrophic when she was in the east.  She was use to this area where you can see forever whereas many areas in the east are surrounded by trees – never looked at it that way.

Oil fields surrounded by cows and farmland:

Cool looking small towns:

Many of these building remind me of the little towns that are set up in a model train city.  But in real life so sad to see these beautiful buildings shut down.

More pictures along the way:

In this area, the smell of oil was very heavy:

West of Post, Texas there were acres and acres of cotton.  Some fields were harvested, some in the process, and some that just looked like snow:

Flat and Beautiful:

We use the ALLSTAYS app and also the DaysEnd Directory (part of Escapees) and there are so many free or “cheap” city parks on US-380.  There are also so many “picnic areas” where one could stay overnight.  We found a little city park in Brownfield Texas that has 12 spots with electric and water and that is where we are tonight.

It was VERY WINDY today and Andy did a great job of getting us here safe (Thank you honey – )

We set up, had supper, and then our phones told us that there was a tornado warning.  One mistake we made was not finding the shelter nearby.  The storm passed thru with much lightning, rain, and wind and now all is good.

Stats for Today

Miles Traveled: 341 Miles (Long Windy Day)

Routes Traveled:

Texas: FM-1385; US-380; SR-288; I-35; US-380; US-62; Park Road

November 14-15, 2015 Visiting Friends

November 14th, we left our little spot in the woods and away we went south over Malden Lake (notice the shadow of our RV on the water) :

Fall has not reached its peak here:

Through the hills:

And thru small towns – I just love the back roads and these little towns:

Almost every town we went thru had a very nice court house:

Old movie theater – still in use:

Over the Lavon Lake Bridge:

Water seems a little low:

After a quick stop at Wal Mart, we traveled to Shady Creek RV Park in Aubrey, Texas where we will be for two nights.

Late afternoon, we met up with our friends Ann and Norylnn for supper and spent the evening getting caught up with each other.  The last time we saw each other was in Colorado Springs last June (2014) so it was really good to see them again.

Stats for today:

Miles Traveled: 160 Miles

Texas: SR-8; SR-77; US-67; I-30; SR-302; US-380; FM-1385

Sunday, 15th, Ann and I spent the day visiting the local flea market, downtown McKinney (a very growing community) and at her new home getting caught up with each other – it is always good to see old friends.  Later we all met up at our place for pizza and said our goodbyes for now. 

Thank you Ann and Norylnn for the great time and hopefully we will see you on the return trip –

Tomorrow we continue our trip west so stay tuned and enjoy today.