Thursday, July 29, 2010
And so it begins. I am looking forward to this road trip. I am planning on being spontaneous for one week before I meet my college roommates in Denver, CO for our annual roommate reunion. I put my tent and sleeping bag in the car and I have no reservations to be anywhere until August 5th. My adventure starts today.
The drive north is so far mundane and uneventful. I started listening to Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and this passes the driving time on I-45 quite nicely. Only when I exit 45 and go towards Fort Worth am I on roads I’ve never driven before.
In Fort Worth I passed a 7-Eleven and immediately exited to turn around and go back for my slurpee. Unfortunately my exit took me far out of the way and in attempts to get back to where I had been before I passed another 7-Eleven. =) That works for me. Slurpees are not available in Houston and have always been a part of our visits to Dallas.
After Fort Worth, I traveled northwest on US 287. For the most part I drove straight through looking forward to leaving the heat of Texas, but I did stop at rest stops to use the wifi and take frequent breaks. Most of the rest stops along this route had signs warning to watch for rattlesnakes.
As sunset approached, I exited US 287 to find a good spot for a photograph. I did find a decent spot with little passing traffic to set up my tripod.
With darkness approaching, I started watching for camping signs. I saw a sign for Lake Arrowhead State Park near Wichita Falls and decided to take a chance on it. Luckily, the park did offer overnight camping and was fairly empty. I drove around in the darkness looking for a decent campsite and found one that I knew I didn’t want. There were two skunks fighting each other with tails raised and everything! It was too dark for photos, and I moved on.
When I did locate a campsite, I was happy to note that I was in a nice open area perfect for taking star pictures. While taking star photos, a skunk wandered by and I spent the whole night worried about skunks. The moon rose over the lake, dark orange, and about three quarters full. There was a nice breeze which cooled the temps down into the high 70s and I had a wonderful night camping in Texas. Usually Texas camping involves sweating on top of a sleeping bag. Tonight was perfect temperature. Clear skies and no rain meant no rain fly on my tent, too, so I felt the breeze through the tent.
