into the Road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is
no knowing where you might be swept off to.”
-J R R Tolkien
Thursday, 7 March 2019 -- Home to Lake Whitney State Park
We took 75 down to I-635 loop east all around to SH 67 southbound to 35W. Then TX 579 (aka 81) to TX 22. I-635 eastbound sucks as always and it's extremely rough. 67 was under construction and walled by concrete for the first five miles or so. After that it was gloriously empty, wide and clear.
1. Planned distance: 124 miles
2. Map time estimate: 2:07
3. Adjusted estimate: not done
4. Actual distance: probably pretty close
5. Actual time: 2:46
6. No stops other than traffic lights.
7. Average mph trip: 45
The I-635 loop around the east side of Dallas was horrible when I moved here thirty years ago, and it's gotten worse with age. Loops were designed to keep through-going traffic out of downtown and let travellers bypass a city, but they quickly became prime locations for malls, car dealers, and restaurants. These days you're better off to skip the loops and barrel right through the deserted inner cities.
And 635 one is one of the worst I've ever seen, comparable only to the unbelievably hideous loop around Houston. Fort Worth's 820 loop used to be a frightful mess, but they've recently constructed these "Express Lanes". They look and feel like HOV lanes, but they but can be traveled by anyone, not just HOVs, for a price. (Tolls.) We haven't tried an express lane in the RV yet, but in a car they're like little magic sprinkles on a miracle cake. You just glide on by.
We might have to avoid them in the RV altogether...or not. I just took a look at the toll charges we incurred on the return trip--about $23. These were normal toll roads, not express lanes. But we went through a total of sixteen toll stations and each individual charge was not much higher than it would have been in a car. I didn't check exact numbers and don't want to. I'm not that OCD.
We arrived at the park check-in station at 1pm according to the clock there, but on second thought it must have been 2pm. My phone died before we hit the town of Whitney. It hadn't been charged completely the night before and couldn't seem to charge off the power port in the Mammoth. Luckily we're a two phone family.
It was a big old lake! And the spots were pull-through, our first! A little road hugged the lake shore and had about four pull-through spots on either side of it. I had reserved one on the lake side of the road, so we "owned" our little stretch of lake and had all the view in the world.
We were on the east side of the lake (hence the campground name, Sunset Loop) and the prevailing winds or some other factor had caused the bank to be hugely undercut and caving in at spots. It was difficult, but not impossible, to climb down to the water at our location. Ed was the first to get a fishing pole in but I demurred. Using a lure, even with my brand new ultralite extendable fishing rod, was going to require me to cast with the wind, not against it. The wind was almost directly in our faces down there and the waves were fierce.
So I wimped out, walked the dogs, and ate lunch of fruit and spicy seafood ramen. But Dad would never have let such an opportunity pass, so eventually rigged up my old fishing rod with a lure and stuck a handful of light weights and a package of lures in my pocket.
The dogs and I ended up walking just a little way north until we found an easy, crumbling trail of rocks down to a spot where I would cast cross-wind. But it just wasn't a good day for fishing. If I'd been set up for cat fishing, it might have been possible to put some weight on and get out in the channel, away from the rocky bottom, but the entry station didn't sell bait and there wasn't a park store. Skunked!
At my inlet I could get my lure out a ways and then slowly reel in--but only for a short distance. The lure and two or three pinch shot weighed it down enough to cast, but if I let it fall to the rocky bottom, it got hung up immediately.
After a while, a flock of pelicans wheeled over. Gorgeous! They're absolutely the most synchronized birds in flight that I've ever seen. Flap, flap, flap; glide-- Flap, flap, flap; turn; glide--- And right after they left I got a fish!
Largemouth bass, I judged. (After doing a little research, I later decided it was more likely a white bass of some sort. It was pale gray and had an indistinct stripe.) In any event, it had the largest mouth I ever saw on a fish and it was clearly a bass. About eight to ten inches long. He was only hooked in the mouth but it took me longer than it should have to get the hook loose, admire him a bit (no phone so no picture; it was still charging) and slip him back into the water. I think he was okay.
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