The crew and I continue westward!
This post was delayed due to lack of connectivity. It’s about Thursday, Aug. 18, 2011.
Another day at Navarro Mills Lake park would be great, but that would put us into the weekend for finding our second camp. More importantly, I want to take advantage of the help and supervision of Paul and Reine in how to break camp, and they’re leaving for Plano today.
By late morning we’ve said our goodbyes and the crew and I are on our way. Destination: Friendship Park at Hord’s Creek Lake, another COE campground . . . about 50 miles south of Abilene, near the town of Coleman.
It’s a hot and miserable 200-mile drive across the Texas plains.
The back of the PTV is a jumble of stuff that’s holding on to its heat and blocking the rear air conditioning vent. I don’t want to stop and wrestle with the tangle back there. The front air is cool, but not frosty, and after a gas stop halfway there, it can’t keep up with the 100+ temperature on this sunny afternoon. Note to self: Never get a late start during a record-breaking heat wave in Texas!
A few times we come over the crest of a small hill and it seems like the whole world is spread out before us. I marvel at the vastness of Texas. It’s almost enough to make you believe the world is flat, after all.
A few miles from the park I check my phone to get the time.
The lighted face stares back at me grimly, NO SERVICE. What? Oh no . . . that means no phone. And no internet! I pull up to the entrance gate and get out, the intense heat bearing down on me. This dry heat is still hot, nevertheless, and it isn’t anything to fool with. I go back to the Casita, grab a cold water and a cold Pepsi from the fridge, pour some more water in the crew’sdish inside the PTV, and guzzle the rest.
The crew has had enough of this. They want out! Now!
I hear a cheery hello. The lady gatekeeper is at the window. I reply between gulps of Pepsi. She confirms that there is no Verizon service out here, not for hundreds of miles. She says she pays a lot of money for her AT&T signal which is often unreliable. Boy, I have indeed fallen off the edge of the earth.
I start thinking out loud . . .” Oh no, what am I going to do? They’ll be frantic wondering what happened to me. I can’t call. I can’t email . . . .” Major withdrawal sets in.
She hands me her phone.
I call Reine, inform her I’m cut off from the world and would she let everyone know by writing on my blog? “I’m sorry, I can’t talk, the heat is terrible.” Reine, once again, gives me sound advice. “Maybe this is a good thing. Stay through the weekend and get some rest.”
I hand the lady my Senior Pass and pay $24 for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. She assigns me campsite #2, a pull-through facing the water. As soon as I park, I level the trailer, chock the wheels, get Spike and Bridget out of the PTV (before they claw through its walls), and they relieve themselves, looking around as if stunned. I hook up the electric and turn on the A/C. I remember to click the “auto” button on the refrigerator which moves it from DC to AC mode. In only a few minutes the Casita is blessedly cool. The crew and I collapse on the bed and sleep for two hours, waking around 5:30 to explore our new home.
Hord’s Creek Lake Park, Coleman, Texas
We have the entire park to ourselves!
Later in the evening I decide to move to campsite #1 which is what the photos show. It’s a straight back-in, so the PTV puts us in place perfectly! I hook up the electric and water, and I turn on the propane.
By bedtime Bridget and Spike are happily exhausted and all three of us sleep soundly through the night.
rvsue
rvsue and her canine crew 