Mammoth in the Bad of the Lands

Monday 20 June 2022
Palo Duro Canyon, Sagebrush Campground

Wow! We've seen a lot more stuff here that we usually see!  Lark Sparrows, Bullock's Orioles (a lot). Turkey on our morning drive. Mississippi Kites--lots.  Tarantula by side of the road on my walk last night; also, one deer. A dead rattlesnake.  Lizards, lots of them.  

We got in kind of late, for us--about four-thirty. It was a slow drive because of the heat and Ed needing to baby the Mammoth RV's engine.  We stopped for gas twice and both times I gave the dogs a quick walk and a drink of water. The total trip was about 7:50 for a route that google said was about 6:30.  We didn't take the quicker--but longer--google route down 121 to Lewisville and back up I-35 to Denton. Instead we cut straight across on highway 380. Simpler, but slower on account of all the business that's built up along the way.  Used to be it was just farmer's fields and slow traffic on a two-lane road. Now it's four lanes or six in places, but cluttered by stoplights all along.

Finally there!

We got gas twice, although neither time were we really empty. The second time we tested out a new gas station--one of the YesWays that suddenly stated showing up on the OpenRoads RV Discount Fuel app. It was small, with only two pumps, and the machine outside didn't take our card. But once he went in the attendant took wit without issues. Still, we will avoid Yesway in future--one of the advantages of the card is NOT having to go inside.

On the way I got nauseous due to postponing lunch and drinking a bottle of iced tea I'd made at home the day before. It was too strong because I'd gotten in a hurry and didn't measure the water properly. I felt so ill that I was ready to go upchuck in the commode, but I nibbled cautiously on a little popcorn. After waiting for that to hit my stomach, things were better and I ate my prepared tuna-salad sandwich and took a nap.

We got to drive down to there?

View from our front windshield--lovely dumpsters, huh?

So when we arrived, I was able to take Molly for a short walk and then another one after dinner. That's when we saw the deer and tarantula.  Cool.

No cooking supper. We have a portable, mini propane grill, but Ed prefers the taste of charcoal, and this entire park is under a burn ban until...more or less forever. It started in January 2021 and isn't due to lift until December 31, or when the rains come and the powers that be decide it's out of a threat of wildfire. I can't say I blame them. Although it's a desert-ish land, there's a lot of grass and mesquite, willows and cottonwoods that would go up in sporadic blazes if a fire were to start.

No matter--we enjoyed fried chicken made the day before (Ed) and canned chili (me), with potato salad for both.

 

Hot as it is, it's still the green season here. The mesquite pods are small and the leaves are abundantly green.  And plenty of grass. And pools of water left in the creek, to grow mosquitos and some sort of hideous biting bug that looks like a leafhopper but attacks my legs whenever I'm walking around along the road. There don't seem to be any of these bugs in the campground, which is odd, because they're every else I go.