Sometimes we are just at the right spot and at the right time. We are currently camping at Millerton Lake State Recreation Area near Fresno, CA. This morning the nearby boat ramp was invaded by a couple hundred triathletes and we had front row seats for the Millerton Lake Triathlon. These folks swam 400 yards, bicycled twelve miles and ran three miles. Six of the fastest men did the whole route in under an hour.
Tag Archives: campgrounds
Camping
As you might have guessed we lead a somewhat nomadic style of life. We are continually looking for new, suitable campgrounds to stay at. The operative terms are new and suitable.
Matagorda Bay:
We have kicked back for a couple slow days at Indianola Park at the edge of Matagorda Bay. This is an estuary that forms the mouth of the Colorado River here in Texas. About 15 miles to our south-west is a line of barrier islands and then the Gulf of Mexico. On the map of Texas this bay is about half way between Galveston and Corpus Christi. The bay is about 350 square miles, and this afternoon when the wind came up we had some pretty impressive surf a hundred feet in front of the coach.
We just finished up a week of work-camping with our friends at Lutherhill, a Lutheran Youth Camp in the summer season. Our friends, Arnie and Mem, care for the grounds during the winter season. We did a few handyman tasks to justify our stay, but mostly we hung out with friends and went to the Opry in La Grange. (See our blog for Feb 20, 2007,(Under construction, link to come) for our last visit to the Opry)
The really nifty part of this location is that we dodged the latest freeze cycle a little further north of here. We woke up to 61 degrees this morning. We rushed out to get in a bicycle ride this morning before the predicted noontime rain. The rain squall caught us about five miles away in Indianola, Texas, a couple hours before predicted. Oh well, We won’t complain, Texas is a couple buckets short for the last two years.
Another advantage for this area is the abundance of birds. We have been logging gulls and terns, shore birds and Sandhill Cranes. We have spotted egrets, herons, pelicans, kingfishers and hawks.
Finally the camping here is free. Now you would think that the place would be overrun, but quite the contrary, it is only sparsely populated. We are “dry camping.” That means no electricity, no water, no wi-fi or cable T.V. There are a few fishermen and also a few full time travelers like us here too. We just met a couple from the Netherlands. They shipped their little European compatible camper over on a ship and they are touring our country for a full year. Just a couple weeks ago we met a family from New Zealand who were doing the same thing.
Meeting interesting new people is one of the rewards of our nomadic style of life. In fact as I sit here humming a few bars of Jimmy Buffet’s “Margaritaville,” I find it hard to even remember what it was like “Workin’ nine to five,” with Dolly.
So Long from South TexasÂ…now where did I put that salt shaker?
Gary and Judy
On The Brazos
In Texas the Brazos River starts somewhere near Lubbock and flows into the Gulf of Mexico about 50 miles West of Galveston Texas. We visited the Brazos in Brazos Bend State Park about fifty miles south of Houston. Now Houston is the largest city in Texas so we carefully tiptoed around the edges of the city to get there. Brazos Bend is very rural and that was part of the attraction for us. What we found was bird-watching programs, nature walks, miles of trails and the George Observatory.
The Creole Trail:
We finally moved on to Texas today. Now we could have hopped on I-10 in Lake Charles and about 70 miles later we would have been in Beaumont Texas looking for our exit to Village Creek State Park. Our philosophy, however, is to avoid Interstates if at all possible. Another philosophy is if something is a little out of the way while we are way over here, go ahead and take the side trip. It would be a whole lot further to come all the way back just to see that one thing.