Texas Trip, Day Two

Thursday, April 9

We awoke to a cloudy and somewhat cooler morning, though it was still pleasant outside. After a breakfast of Mother's homemade quick breads, and fruit (banana, orange, apple, grapes, and strawberries), and getting ready for the day, I walked briskly for about 20 minutes around the campground, picking up large pinecones as I went.





At one point, I asked one of the campground staff what the weather prediction was for today, and he said it was supposed to start raining in about an hour. So we hurried around and broke camp.






It was a chore hooking the truck to the camper, because we'd been assigned a space that had a sharp downturn right where the truck and camper came together. Hubbie had to pry the truck off of the ball last night when he set the camper up. This morning, he had to drive the truck up onto some boards, in order to raise the front end enough to lower the back end, so he could, with my guidance, back the ball under the cup.





Hubbie complained about this at the registration desk, and was told that according to their computer information, this is the same space we'd used a few years ago, so they thought we'd want it again. But now they've flagged it as not suitable, so when we make reservations again, they'll assign us a flat site.





We were on the road around 9:30 a.m. At noon, we stopped at a rest area for a lunch of PB&J sandwiches. Here, the air was fragrant with "eau de cattle," since pastures of the bovines were close by.





About an hour before we reached Dallas, we began seeing small patches of Texas bluebonnets along the median and sides of the highway. By the time we reached the Dallas bypass, we were seeing large patches of these lovely periwinkle blue wildflowers, along with some very pretty pink flowers that I have not yet identified.





On the way, we passed a huge building, called the Villa Maria, which we supposed must be a resort. Also, a billboard declared that the "King Ranch is larger than the State of New Hampshire."





Nearing the Dallas bypass, we crossed an enormous lake, it's green water white-capping in the wind. The lake, called Lake Ray Hubbard, is enormous, covering 22,745 acres.





We managed to get on the bypass, and then onto Highway 45 to Corsicana, without incident, and arrived at the campground about 3 p.m. The temp was in the 80s by this time, and I can only imagine how this paved and white shale campground must be in the heat of the summer, with only one small tree per campsite for shade. In fact, while Texas is noted for its endless land mass, it is not noted for it's stately trees, at least not in this part of the state.





We spent the rest of the afternoon in leisure pursuits...Hubbie reading his novel, Mother working word games, and I recording the day's activities on my laptop. I was glad to find that this campground has WiFi, but I didn't access it, because I got a warning window that it is unsecure.

Supper was leftover meatloaf, with microwave baked potatoes, and no-salt English peas. Later, we played three games of Skipbo...I won two, and Hubbie won one. By this time, we were tired and ready to hit the hay.