Heading West Once Again

Time to get caught up with our adventures since my last post over a month ago. Once again I'm posting from my Android smart phone & BlogAway app, using a USB mini keyboard, with digital camera photos uploaded to my phone. Sure is a change from my laptop using Live Writer.

After leaving Branson Nov 4 in the rain, we spent the next three weeks hanging around AR waiting to have my annual mamogram. Everything is fine (breath again), but we still haven't been successful in scheduling & completing our various VA medical appointments to be able to leave the area when we want.

We stayed at Maumelle Campground, a Corps of Engineer campground right along the Arkansas River, northwest of Little Rock. We had forgotten how large the campsites at COE parks are. But after 10 days, we needed to leave there for our appointment at Little House Custom for a few upgrades.

We discovered a nice, quiet city park along Monticello Lake, southwest of Mt Pleasant TX (which is on I-30) to get from Little Rock to LHC. It's only $7/night for electric (& water during warm weather), but TX charges an additional $2/person/day. Hmm, same $11/night at a COE - but it's within an hour of LHC.

We arrived at LHC at 9am, & between Larry & his new helper Ken, we got an electric jack & 2" lifts installed. We (me mostly) wanted the new shocks also, but the supply of them is exhausted for a bit. We were done & gone by 11am. Whew - that was fast.

We then traveled a couple of hours over local roads back to Texarkana to the Wright Patman COE, Rocky Point Campground. We got a site on the north side of the Lake, right along the shore. Short of having a covered shelter, this was real close to a perfect campsite.And the sunsets there were reminiscent of those glorious winter sunsets in the desert!

So then it was back to Maumelle Campground in Little Rock for my mamogram before we could FINALLY exit the area to start our SW winter. We stopped once again at Monticello Lake for a night, & then traveled to Tres Rios (three rivers) RV Resort near Glen Rose TX the day before Thanksgiving. This campground is owned by Ocean Canyon, the owners also of Compton Ridge in Branson, a Coast to Coast park, & located along the Brazos River. We stayed for a week with FHU, waiting on the arrival of mail. For Thanksgiving, we went to a local restaurant, Riverhouse Grill located in a large, handsome old house. The traditional turkey dinner of 3 courses was expensive, but it was sort of a celebration. As much as we cherish all the Thanksgivings spent with my parents thru the decades, this was a very special day this year also.

Along the Cross Branch on the south side of Glen Rose is Big Rocks Park, a unique rocky outcropping, most warn smooth by many floods but some grotesquely erroded. For non-red rocks, I found them awesome.

There was also this unique abandoned rock house designed in the same archectural style of other houses in the area.

Although this area southwest of Ft Worth is known for numerous fossils & dinosaur tracks, we stopped by for a free look at the Chisolm Trail Museum. Since it was Sunday tho, no voluntary docents were around to explain the various displays.

Another Casita pulled in our last day, Chris & Kay from Dallas, headed to the Matagorda Madness rally. Hope to see them again when we return to this campground.

After doing some laundry & getting our mail, we headed west again. We spent a quiet FREE night at the little but neat city park in Lemesa TX. Visitors & tourists can stay up to four nights for free with electric & water. As Jeff has follow-up checkups at the VA in Little Rock every six months, we will most likely take this same route & stops back in the Spring. Or not - love these jello plans.

So finally we've made it to New Mexico to check out another State Park. This time it's Brantley Lake SP, north of Carlsbad. We're camped on a hill overlooking the Lake & the surrounding area to the north, with a nice covered shelter on a concrete pad & rock windscreen wall. The wind has been strong from the south & then from the north, sometimes changing within a few hours. We had some rain one night, & one morning of fog, but never below freezing. It even got warm enough yesterday to take my water squirt bottle & a microfiber cloth to actually wipe down the trailer. Boy it was filthy but cleaned up amazingly easy. Two other Casitas have arrived at the Park while we were here too. We had a great visit with Camala & Charley from El Paso. We've really enjoyed our time here at this SP & plan to return (probably during our easterly Spring migration).

We plan to once again visit Oliver Lee SP, south of Alamagordo, tomorrow. Then up to Truth or Consequences for either Percha Dam and/or Caballo Lake Riverside Campground. And to visit again with Emily. Then up to Santa Fe's Hyde Park Memorial SP. Jeff is curious about the Christmas lights & decorations in town, & I want to investigate Taos again. Since it's higher elevation in northern New Mexico, & it's December, we won't be staying too long, especially if there's SNOW. We have until the end of March 2015 to continue using the $10/night discount from the $225 NM State Parks pass we got last March 1st. It paid for itself last year, so the $4/night for electric & water sites this winter is NICE. We plan to return from AZ for March, & will probably get another NM Pass next winter.