Fisherman's Point RV park on Richland-Chambers Lake
Friday, 14 February 2020 - Monday 17 February 2020
US-75 South to SH-190 East; I-30 West to I-635 South; US-175 south to the loop around Athens, SH-59 south to Cayuga, US-287 west to FM 488 and FM 416 to Cherry Lane.
1. Planned distance: 146 miles
2. Map time estimate: 2:27
3. Adjusted estimate: didn't calculate
4. Actual distance: forgot to check
5. Actual time:
6. On way out, no stops; on return trip two gear check stops, less than 5 minutes each
7. Average mph trip: unknown
I spent the first half of the drive grinning with happiness--finally to be back on the road! Going places. Maybe not super exciting places--this lake is only two hours south of where we live and close enough to Corsicana that the house addresses on the west side of the lake are Corsicana addresses. The terrain is flat and boggy, decorated with scrubby oaks and cedar. There weren't any flowers out yet and nary a single leaf on a tree.
I spent the second half of the drive being depressed because the last time I drove this road (TX-175) I had a teenage newbee driver at the wheel, showing off how she could do highways for the first time. Now and forever more, alone.
I'd had a good bit of anxiety about the RV park--it would be our first time in a private park and all I had to go on were pictures on their web site and google maps. But it turned out to be splendid! In peak season with all of the spaces occupied, it would have been a real bummer--there were sites on either side of us that were less than twenty feet away. But at the time we arrived there were only three or four sites in use, mostly off to the west up on a hill and two were out on "the point". A couple of spots down from us was a trailer and a boat, parked without a vehicle. Possibly its owner was at work when we arrived and would show up after dark.
The lady working the office was supremely nice and offered to let us move if our chosen site by the lake turned out to be too cold and windy. But it wasn't--not for us. We wouldn't have moved for the world (unless there were people right next to us).
The driveways could use a few loads of gravel and a few dozens of trees, but there was a bit of concrete to park on and a marvelous view of the lake. I was so very happy I changed my original reservation even if it did cost me twenty four dollars of "reservation fees". The other place might have been just fine for our little mid-February mini-break, but just the peace of mind of being at a place that didn't have scary negative reviews was worth it. (I had chosen the first place in a hurry and didn't carefully read the client reviews. Later, when I happened upon them, I saw references to "owner who cussed someone out in front of children" and "owner's brother who tried to ram someone else boat for being in his 'private lake'" and other unpleasantnesses. Most likely we would have been fine, but any one such episode would have spoiled a trip for us.)
After we were hooked up and I'd had a bite of lunch, I coerced Ed into running over to Fairfield Lake State Park to see if we wanted to camp there sometime. Everyone says it's a great place but we weren't especially thrilled. Out at the day use area, which was deserted at four p.m. in February, there were more Coots than I'd ever imagined to see in one place at one time. Millions of 'em. [coots]They seemed to be all trying to occupy the same spot of water--wings were thrashing and half of the flock at any time was hovering over the other half. I hope they got it straightened out. There was also a Great Blue showing off his plumes
The park had several trails, including a little .7 mile birder's trail leading from the road to the water. It had clearly been built a long time ago and had zero maintenance since--the benches all looked like trees had fallen on them. But in season, I imagine it would offer a lot of watching. We were content to go back to our nearly empty (albeit more expensive) private park.
Our RV park had a restaurant called, whimsically, "The Lighthouse Cafe". (There has never been a lighthouse within two hundred miles.) When it was time for Ed to fire up the grill for skewers and steak, and since I'd forgotten to thaw out my shrimp--not to mention peel or marinade it--I chose to walk up the hill and buy myself a fried catfish platter. The fish was excellent; the fries and corn nuggets were the kind you shake out of a bag. I ate one of the two fillets, a few fries and two nuggets. Too much for a person on a diet, but just about perfect for a person on a diet who only had a small lunch consisting of a half portion of leftovers from yesterday's uneaten lunch.
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