New Mexico, Texas (STR-2022-25)

Friday, 26 August

After crossing into New Mexico, we continued mostly southeast to Ute Lake State Park near Logan, NM. Chosen as they had electric sites available on a Friday night - something unheard of in places like Colorado, Utah, Oregon or Washington states. In usual Sprinty fashion, he arrived with no reservation, allowing him to scope out the available sites and pick one. Not a fancy campground, but quite sufficient for our needs of a place for the night passing through.

Saturday, 27 August

With the thunderstorms last evening and night, the temperatures were cool enough to enjoy the fresh air instead of needing air conditioning.

After breakfast, we headed to the Jack Sizemore RV Museum just south of Amarillo, TX. Jack Sizemore operated a RV dealership in Amarillo until a few years ago when he sold the business to Camping World. He had several buildings south of town which now house his free museum of RVs, motorcycles, cars and race cars. The current museum is smaller than the one Sprinty visited in 2017. The docent explained they rotate exhibits from time to time.

Jack (father) and Trent (son) Sisemore began collecting and restoring unusual vintage RV's over 25 years ago and built a museum to house their collection. These include the Flexible Bus from the movie RV, 

the first Itasca motor home ever built,

1975 Itasca

1975 Itasca

and the oldest Fleetwood in existence. And many other RV's from the 1930's through the 1970's, such as the FMC Motorcoach. Probably the most famous FMC owner was CBS reporter Charles Kuralt, host of the popular news feature "On the Road with Charles Kuralt". An FMC was the last of Kuralt's six motorhomes which is on public display at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI.

FMC Motorhome

1935 Torpedo, The World's Oldest Airstream

From Amarillo, we continued southeast to Caprock Canyons State Park. A glance at the satellite view on Google Maps suggested it was connected to Palo Duro Canyon, 70 miles away near Amarillo, which was confirmed at the Visitor Center.

Caprock Canyons State Park is home to the JA Bison Herd.

In 1877, Charles Goodnight established the JA Ranch in the Palo Duro Canyon. While living there, he and his wife Mary Ann witnessed the near-extinction of the bison herds. Mary Ann was so distressed by the slaughter that she persuaded her husband to capture a few bison calves in 1878. Over the next several decades, he and Mary Ann amassed the world-famous Goodnight Bison Herd.

In 1887, the Goodnights left the JA Ranch and founded the Goodnight Ranch nearby, where they continued to be active in bison preservation. Their activities included providing animals to create federally-protected herds. In 1902, federal officials purchased three young bulls from the Goodnights to add to the herd at Yellowstone National Park. The couple provided two bison to the National Bison Range in Montana in 1908.

Mary Ann Goodnight passed away in 1926, and Charles died just three years later. After his death, the bison herd passed through the hands of several owners and began to decline in numbers. In the mid-1930s, the herd escaped from the Goodnight Ranch into the Palo Duro Canyon, returning to its historic range on the JA Ranch.

We knew from the campground reviews that bison were free roaming in the park. From the Visitor Center, we could see a small herd of bison in the distance. As we made our way towards the campground, we had to stop for bison crossing the road right in front of us.

There were many more bison in a nearby pond and the meadow across the road.

We drove only a few hundred feet and ran into a bison jam, not unlike those found in Yellowstone National Park.

We knew enough about bison jams to give the right of way to the bison.

We waited patiently as the bison mostly stood in the road.

Slowly, they moved off the road so vehicles could pass.

We continued on the scenic drive and stopped at an overlook to view the canyon scenery.

At the end of the scenic drive, we got a good view of the canyons.

As we returned to the campground, we saw bison starting to wander around the west end of the Honey Flats campground. Right after we got Sprinty settled, the bison started wandering through Sprinty's campsite.

Later we were treated to a beautiful sunset.

Sunday, 28 August

For avid golfers, golf choices are few and far between in the plains of north Texas. We departed before sunrise to drive 195 miles to play golf at Maxwell Municipal Golf Course in Abilene, TX. Maybe there were a couple of dinky 9-hole courses closer, but our choice was a 18-hole course that is also a Harvest Host. While the temperatures made it impractical (and uncomfortable) to use our Harvest Host membership to stay the night, we do like to support Harvest Host golf courses as we travel.

Leaving Caprock Canyons State Park before sunrise allowed us to watch a beautiful sunrise as we carefully watched for wildlife. Our count this morning included two deer (one crossing the road, one dead on the shoulder), at least a half dozen rabbits, one dead skunk and at least three snakes. The traffic was so light, we started counting cars - we had traveled 36 miles before we saw the first oncoming car. Only 40 oncoming cars in the first 2 hours, and only 5 cars passed us despite Sprinty cruising at 15mph below the posted speed limit of 75mph.

We allowed extra travel time in case of a bison jam as we were departing Caprock Canyons State Park. No bison that early, so we arrived early for our noon tee time. We got right on, but the pace for most of the round was weekend slow despite temperatures in the mid-90s when we started and 100 degrees when we finished.

After golf, we executed Plan A which was to stay at Abilene State Park in Tuscola, TX. We showed up with no reservation, got a list of available sites, and picked a nice one in the shade. Shade was highly desired as it was 100 degrees and sunny.

Monday, 29 August

We started the day leisurely, then headed southeast to San Saba, TX to play golf. Sprinty enjoyed cruising the blue highways for 126 miles while his humans watched the terrain and vegetation change from high desert plains to more rolling hills with trees. And as the elevation decreased, the humidity increased to a point we have not experienced in weeks.

San Saba River Golf Course is an 18-hole municipal golf course. Being a weekday with temperatures already in the 90s, the course was not busy. Unlike yesterday, the two-somes in front of us played even faster than we do.

Sprinty made quite an impression on the golfers as the golf course has a RV park next door. One fellow even made an unsolicited (and lowball) offer for Sprinty. Another couple asked questions as they are thinking of downsizing from a Class A motorhome.

After golf, we continued east. Our original plan was to stay at Inks Lake State Park in Burnet, TX - chosen to position us to play golf tomorrow. Alas, the weather forecast for tomorrow was for rain all day. So we shifted to Plan B and headed for a Jim Hogg Campground, a Corps of Engineers Campground on Lake Georgetown in Georgetown, TX. We knew from the reservation system there were lots of sites available, but encountered an unexpected surprise - the entrance gate to the campground required a code which you only get when you reserve a site online.

Not very helpful when one is winging it. Fortunately, a fellow camper gave us the code, we picked a site in the shade (it was almost 100 degrees), and booked the site on-line for the night. Which came with the code to the gate.

Tuesday, 30 August

We reached out to RV friends who live in Georgetown nearby - friends we met on the Canadian Maritimes caravan in the summer of 2019 - to see if we could get together. But they were out of town. Maybe next time.

The forecast last night was for rain all day today. This morning, the forecast indicated no rain until noon. So we broke our the eBikes planning to ride the Good Water Trail that passed through the park. AllTrails said it was suitable for road bikes. Less than 100 yards down the trail, we abandoned that idea. It was definitely not suited to road bikes. We shifted to riding the housing neighborhoods just outside Jim Hogg park. We got in almost 11 miles admiring the homes on 1 acre lots.

We then headed out with a Corps of Engineers campground at Lake Somerville near Burton, TX, as our target. Sprinty stayed at Rocky Creek Campground in November 2018 as he meandered out to Arizona for the winter. As we headed east, it started raining. One local mentioned that they had not had rain in 3 months, and planned to go dancing in the rain. It rained most of the drive, hard enough at times to have to slow down due to poor visibility. The rain continued until after dinner.

Wednesday, 31 August

We started the day with a pretty sunrise over Lake Somerville.

We decided to take a chance on the weather and headed back to Caldwell, TX to the Copperas Hollow Country Club. A 9-hole course, the online tee time system indicated it was wide open. The course was sopping wet, but inexpensive with the military and senior discounts. We enjoyed the day despite a short period of rain.

After golf, we turned east to Cagle National Forest Campground in New Waverly, TX. The route took us through Byron, TX, where we stopped for Starbucks and a few grocery items.

Cagle National Forest Campground, like other National Forest campgrounds, is first come, first served if less than 2 days away. Plenty of sites available, we picked a nice one in the shade.

Thursday, 1 September

Another golf day as we work to make up for missed golf days over the last couple of months. We played Panorama Golf Club in Conroe, TX, which offered a veteran discount. The tee sheet was full, so we were surprised that play moved along fairly well, especially with five-somes in front of us. After spending the summer in drier climates, the hot, muggy, humid weather is taking some getting used to.

We returned to Cagle National Forest Campground and were able to get the same shaded site as last night.

Friday, 2 September

With no rain forecast for the morning, we rode our bikes on the Spring Creek Greenway, a nice, wide greenway that extends 13.7-miles from Spring, TX to Humble, TX. Mostly in the shade, which helped in the muggy humid morning. We started by riding from Pundt Park to the western end - where the trail abruptly ended.

We then rode east getting in almost 20 miles total. After the ride, we made our way to Humble, TX where Sprinty gets a few days off as we visit Kris' sister Shelley and her family for Labor Day weekend.