Texas Baby!

 Saturday 18th February 2023

We left Louisiana and headed to Texas! We will be staying in northern Texas until May.

We were glad to be leaving Indian Creek as we had not realized it was President's Weekend as well as Mardi Gras and the campsite filled up very quickly beginning on Friday lunchtime. Everyone was towing a big rv with a trailer carrying a golf cart. We found out there was going to be a Mardi Gras golf cart parade on Saturday afternoon. All the new residents seemed local and think they all come just for the parade and long weekend.

The drive to Texas was very bumpy, some highways are concrete and are like washboards. Stopped at a truck stop but this one was not very nice, we just used the facilities grabbed a drink and left.

State Parks charge a daily entrance fee to access the park, but this fee has been waived in parks in other states we have stayed at up to now, if you are paying to camp. Texas charges to camp plus the daily entrance fee! To save this fee we purchased an annual park pass which cost $70. This pass can be used to cover entrance fees and also get discounts at park stores. This will save us a lot and easily pay for itself in just a few stays. For example, on this stop one week's entrance fees was $42 and for our next stop the entrance fees for two weeks would be $196. Each park has different fees depending on popularity.

Atlanta State Park is in two sections and our campsite is one of a few set along the edge of a small road that leads to the day use area. In low season that was not too busy and there is just an odd car passing us to access the reservoir, kids play area and picnic tables but I'm sure in high season this road would be very busy and if people speed a bit dangerous.

We had a pull through site and lots of space as we stepped out of our door looking at trees, bushes and behind them the lake.

We enjoyed a quiet week at Atlanta and wished we had been staying for our usual two weeks. This park was flooded six years ago and the day area was 35 feet under water and the park was closed for a few months. The trees in an area I walked were under water for months and died so they had to cut them down and are slowly replacing them with pine and hardwoods. 

A flood area

New pine trees

There were some amazing sunrises but due to not so great weather, not many sunsets.

Fun items at the store

John painted his St Patrick's Day Leprechaun wood carving on a warm Sunday afternoon.