Crane's Mill Park on Canyon Lake Texas
Sam Rayburn Tollway South; Texas 121 TEXpress/Texas 183 TEXpress, I-820 W, Chisolm Trail parkway south; US 67 South; 220 West; US-281 South; some little roads over to the park.67 to 281. 311 south. 3159 east/north. 2673 north/west.
1. Planned distance: 325 miles
2. Map time estimate: 5:35
3. Adjusted estimate: didn't calculate
4. Actual distance: 320 miles which makes no sense--are our tires mis-sized?
5. Actual time: 5:58 (excluded 20 minutes stops)
6. Gas stop in Fort Worth and pee stop at "picnic" area on 281
7. Average mph trip: unknown
Really late start (12:16). None of the prep work (backing up the boat to get it out of the way of the RV, for example) had been done the day before. It's true it had been raining and wet in the previous morning, but work could have been done in the afternoon. When we finally got started loading the car onto the tow dolly, more problems arose. First the car overshot the dolly and required major engineering to get loose. Then it kept coming up the ramp off-center and missing the very narrow wheel spaces.
So we didn't leave until after noon for what was supposed to be a five-and-one-half hour drive. The actual numbers are shown above.
But it wasn't such a bad trip. Sunny and cool but not so cool that we were miserable in the front seats. Mammoth's heater doesn't work too well--the air it blows is warm, not hot, and it has to be blowing right on you to feel it.
Barreling down the eternally congested I-35 was out of the question, so I routed us on the I-820 loop around Fort Worth. We were able to get on the express lanes for SH-121/820 and stay on them, all around the messy part. Except we needed gas. Obviously, you can't get gas on an Express Lane, so Ed just gripped the steering wheel harder and I frantically searched for truck stops on my phone. But my phone's "search along route" feature wouldn't go far enough out and it only showed gas stations at the next couple of stops for our route. I located found a Racetrack station just off to the left at a nearby stop, and we went there. Luckily it was one of the new ones, with diesel, and we were able to refill easily on an outside lane. Whew.
Of course as soon as we got back on 820, truck stops jumped up all over the place.
The drive was pleasant, but went through all the little towns--Glen Rose, Marble Falls, ...with all their little traffic lights. But the road, especially TX-181, had shoulders and passing lanes every few miles. And there wasn't much traffic.
I tried to take some pictures of the impressive scenery when we approached the hill country, but all I captured were hills.
The only real issue we encountered was the setting sun, in particular, how fast it appeared to be setting. We were hoping to arrive in order to finish out hookups without a flashlight. Amazingly we made it--6:33 and still light. After a quick exchange to the very nice lady at the entrance, we were soon on our way to a waterfront site at a campground that was more than three-quarters empty.
But not before nearly hitting a deer. He darted out from a bar near the park, got in the road in front of us, and hesitated. Ed hit the brakes pretty hard and so did the oncoming car. The deer survived, but the box of cornmeal in our pantry did not. It hit the floor and exploded .It was large, level, and clean, like all of the Texas Corp of Engineers parks we've camped at. So far. No wood knocking needed. Our only complaint was the same as we've had for the others--too open. They'd left a few trees but not nearly as many as they might have, so all of the spaces were wide-open to all the others. It wasn't objectionable...yet if we'd taken a site away from the water, our picnic table would have no privacy from any side. As it was only our nearest neighbor overlooked us and we didn't see much of him or his family outside.
It was a chilly night but the space heater kept us cozily warm. Supper; dog walking; bed; sleep. Aaahhhhh.
No comments:
Post a Comment