Slipped into Texas and stayed at the Army’s place on Wright-Patman Lake

Thursday November 21^st

Heading south on I71. We're actually keeping up with traffic this year.

Starting to look a lot greener

We have been on the move pretty well daily since last Friday’s crossing (Nov 15^th) – putting Harvey through regular doses of interstate travel (we seem to average about 62-63 mph). That’s about 100 Km/h for those with metric heads. It’s a bit of a contest to find the right speed since Harvey won’t shift into 6^thgear (most economical and easiest driving) below 63 mph and Smiley can’t be towed at speeds higher than 65 mph. Takes a little finesse to keep them happy. Glad Norene is easy to please. 

As we became aware of the huge weather disturbance coming from the west we felt some urgency to get south of its track and pushed on even though we did encounter strong winds (50 mph gusts) and some heavy duty rain as we headed southwest. Better to be mobile and have a chance to work around the storms than to be like the poor folks in Ohio, Illinois, and Tennessee who were hit so badly only a day or two after we passed through.

Averaging about 350 miles per day over Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we ended up at our first target, the Camping World in North Little Rock Arkansas, by day 3. Stayed in their lot overnight and by mid day Tony had our reluctant step repaired plus 2 vent covers installed. All done at a very reasonable cost and way faster than we had a right to expect since we had not called ahead. Cannot recommend these guys enough.

Crossing the Mississippi into Arkansas

Oh yeah – the Army thing. After a succession of expedient overnight stops at Wal-Marts and Flying J’s we set out to reward ourselves on Monday at Rocky Point Park on Wright-Patman Lake just a few miles south of Texarkana (barely inside the Texas state line). This park is operated by the US Army Corps of Engineers (the dam, dike and canal people). This is a beautiful park with huge shaded sites on a managed lake. 

Sunset on the lake through the campground

Trees still in their glory days

Some more than others

My artistic work is now done. Yeah I know - big deal.

There is a second nearby park, Piney Point which is just as pretty. Naturally we took the nature trail walk between the 2 parks and got a nice 2 hour round trip out of it. 

We walked the thin blue line

It started out looking like a road. Got a bit more challenging

Purple fruit. No idea.

That's Rocky Point (from Piney Point).

Norene looking serene in Piney.

The lake from Piney. Weather in the 60's

Not far enough south yet according to the forecast so we picked up on Wednesday (Nov 20^th) and headed south a mere 133 miles to Nacogdoches. 

Working our way down Highway 59

This scenic little place happens to be the oldest town in Texas and has lived under 9 sovereign flags since its inception. Dropped into the tourist bureau and walked most of the downtown district (including the Sterne-Hoya House Museum & Library). 

Sorry for spoiling the picture. I did suck it in!

Yes those are flowers. No idea again. Can still name the female.

Look at these pretty berries. Eeewww - they're sticky!

Now I believe it gets hot here.

Yes that is a yellow rose in Texas. No it is not a good picture.

Too lazy to find out what these are. Neat colours though.

Saw a lot of references to Sam Houston since he lived here at one point. Convinced ourselves we deserved a genuine local meal so we dropped into a Mexican restaurant on South Street. Huge delicious and authentic – no franchise here. Weather has been terrific – the mercury hit 75F today which is close to normal for here at this time of year.

But it ain’t going to last. According to today’s forecast there is an arctic air mass on the way down (even to here) that will drop the temperature to as low as the 30’s tomorrow night. Time to move further south tomorrow. We’ll try south of Houston so Norene can get a Costco fix. I have a good book so we’ll both be happy.

Have you been listening to anything I’ve said? I’m sure I saw you start to nod off there.

Relax – nearly put myself to sleep too. Will try to put a little more emotion into my next post. Or at least more interesting pictures.