Leaving Lake Brownwood for Garner State Park

Tuesday November 3
High 78; low 46

After a quick breakfast, it was time to pack up and move out. I'd been surprisingly lethargic and unenthusiastic about all and everything. On Monday I'd passed up hundred of opportunities to see birds, so after walking the dogs I snuck out alone and tried to take a picture of the gulls and coots in the water. I may have gotten that pied-billed grebe...I think.

Here's a killdeer's butt:

As I was idly watching the red-winged blackbird crew, I noticed a couple of different birds. Just robins, I thought--they'd hopped a little and robins are of a similar size and shape, with one difference being that robins hop while red-winged blackbirds walk. But no--these birds started to walk, too--and they were distinctively yellow underneath. Meadowlarks, of course--but western or eastern? Impossible to tell.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lake Brownwood State Park to Garner State Park (Site: 343, Live Oak loop)
Our route:
TX-279 S to US-377 South in Brownwood
US-377 S and US-190 W/U.S. Hwy 190 W
FM 1311 to US-377 South to Junction
Get on Interstate 10 Eastbound for a second
US 83 South to Garner State Park, planned 198 miles, Google time 3:17
Our actual mileage was 214.7. We had two unnecessary detours--the first one happened when I set my phone navigation to stop at the Pilot Truck Stop in Junction. For no apparent reason the phone app routed us eastbound on I-10. We had to go to the next exit, make a U-Turn, and come back to our gas station, which would have been a simple turn on the right just past the on-ramp. Then later we missed the park entrance as I describe below.

 

The drive, which took about four hours, turned out to be surprisingly tiring.We drove through some very hilly country but mostly the hills were to the left or the right and our drive was simply slow uphills and slow downhills. The road was mostly two-laned with climbing/passing lanes placed every five to ten miles. We stayed behind a truck pulling a trailer for an annoyingly long time, with no chance to pass except uphill, where Ed couldn't summon the power to speed up.

Then we were stuck behind an RV pulling a trailer (I think) for nearly forever, until we went around a courthouse to the left while he went to the right. Several wrong turns later we ended up--guess what--behind him again. But a passing lane eventually let us by.

I'm thinking that was the same guy we met again at the entrance gate. I'd thought we wanted to come in the south entrance, so we passed up the Google Maps recommendation and went on. It turned out that one was closed, so when we went back to the north one, there the guy was. He parked closer to the door than I did, but I outran him.

Later it occurred to me that if I'd been planning this trip in the old way, with paper road maps, I'd not have taken that route. Especially not the FM (Farm-to-Market) portion. I might not have chosen the shortest route, or the fastest route--for cars--but I suspect I'd have chosen the better route. I've mentioned before that the RV can't speed up and slow down as fast as a car, so going through small towns with traffic lights really does a number on our drive times.

For the conclusion of this lecture, see my trip end notes.

I'd read horror stories about check-in at Garner State Park, one of the most popular state parks in Texas. People wrote of two-hour waits in long lines of cars. That was one of the motivating factors in doing our Lake Brownwood stop instead of driving straight through--I didn't want to arrive at closing time.

But we had none of that, since it was a weekday and not peak camping season. Also it looked like Texas had spent a lot of money setting up a check-in process that reminded me of an airport ticket counter--you parked in the huge parking lot, took a number on the way in, then stood in line until one of the clerks behind the counter called you up. (Actually, when we arrived it was empty, so we breezed on through)
As expected, our camp site was in a flat clearing in a low mesquite/post oak woods with nothing special to recommend it. It was only about two-thirds full. On the way in we took a wrong turn and ended up driving the Mammoth down to the day use area. It was full of people--nice people, I'm sure, but so many! Ug.

But back at the place we belonged, we found the spaces decently spaced and not at all noisy. There were only a few kids running around, although I wouldn't have expected any at all. The campers weren't all old people, like us--there were quite a few young people. With a pandemic still raging in the U.S., a lot of people are out of work...although you wouldn't guess it to drive through McKinney at rush hour.

We were greeted by a Black-Crested Titmouse--new life bird for me! No picture, though, I was too busy helping set up.

We did take a short walk down to the water:

Zack in the Rio Frio.