March 18th, 2023
We try not to travel more than four hours a day, so we made three stops while traveling through Texas on our way to the western national parks.
In early March, not much is blooming and the chance of winds and storms is pretty good in this gigantic state, so we planned short stays at each location. We learned that there is not much to do in smaller towns in Texas and apparently AT&T hates Texas. We were lucky to have two bars through the entire state.
Our first stop was Lakeshore RV Resort in Garland, Texas. Garland is just outside of Dallas and I should have expected a very urban park, but the name and the website had me fooled.
The park is nestled underneath monster highway interchanges, across a large road from Lake Ray Hubbard. Getting to the lakefront was a bit challenging and it was not a place I was comfortable walking Reba by myself. For an urban RV park though, it was very nice. The clubhouse and other amenities were beautiful. The laundry area was clean and spacious and inexpensive. They had three dog parks that were well maintained. And the staff was wonderful. They helped us out with an issue we had getting a part for our RV sent to us.
And guess what?!? In Texas I learned how to install an auto level relay board! Pretty proud of that accomplishment.
Our second stop was Abilene. The KOA Journey was simple, but nice. Reba was a fan of the dog park. It was large enough for a game of ball and there were some dog pals to play with.
We went to the Abilene State Park for a hike around Lake Abilene. It was about a three mile hike and while the lake was very low, the surrounding area was pretty. About half way through our hike the wind kicked up and that was the start of what we will affectionately call the last windstorm we will spend in Texas – ever! 🙂
After leaving the hike we happened upon an adorable little town called Buffalo Gap, Texas. We stopped in the Country Market. They sell meats from the famous Perini Ranch Steakhouse, which is just down the road and has been honored as an America’s Classic by the James Beard Foundation. We did not know about this amazing restaurant before we came, so we were not able to get a reservation while we were in the area. Next time! We did buy four ribeyes from the Country Market. They are in the freezer – will let you know how they turn out!
We stopped by Buffalo Gap Historic Village on the way back to the campground. It is a compilation of historic buildings from the area.
I drove from Abilene to Odessa and the wind was blowing. We went all the way without a stop, which turned out to be a good thing because the storm kicked up a ton once we got there.
It was a full out sand storm. The rig and the truck need a bath for sure!
Not much in Odessa to write home about. On to New Mexico and Carlsbad Caverns next!!