Hunkered Down In Texas

 October 18-24, 2018

A break in the weather and we headed to San Angelo State Park just 77 miles away in San Angelo TX. We decided on a long back in, water and electric $20/night with a TX State Park pass. We got set up and took a walk before the rain came again. We chose site 14, lots of room on either side, views of the lake and lots of park roads to walk on. We either hunkered down on rainy days or explored San Angelo a bit, we were last here about a year ago. Then it was only as a detour on a travel day to get the truck worked. I'm told that as a kid I came to San Angelo to visit family. Needless to say we knew nothing about the city, what we discovered had us enjoying our explorations.

Last campfire on this leg of the journey

Our wildlife sighting

San Angelo has their own Riverwalk, while it doesn’t go thru the heart of the town it does go through some parks and has access to the historic downtown. We saw lots of folks fishing along the banks, didn’t see any catching though. Along the Riverwalk is lots of artwork from the group Art In Uncommon Places a non-profit organization based in San Angelo.

While it’s not Lily season we did stop at San Angelo’s International Water Lily Collection to see what was still blooming. San Angelo is home to the most extensive collection of varieties of water lilies in the United States. Peak is September but in mid-October there  were still some beautiful blooms to see.

Fort Concho was established in 1867 to protect frontier settlements and to explore and map west Texas. Made up mainly of the native limestone, Fort Concho does not look like what most folks think of when thinking of forts. At it's peak it supported up to 500 men,  companies of infantry and troops of cavalry, staff officers and support personnel called Fort Concho home. In 1889 it was deactivated, today it is a National Historic Landmark with many original buildings.

After visiting the fort across the street we saw what appeared to be some street food and a food truck. Being hungry we investigated, all the vendors were selling Lumpia, Pancit and some sesame balls. Thanks to our friend Mona Liza we knew all about the dishes being offered, lunch was great but not as good as Mona Liza’s.

Our original plans had us only being here two nights before heading on. With all the rain, Inks Lake State Park, our next stop closed due to flooding, time to jiggle with the jello again. We ended staying 5 nights at San Angelo before moving on. We really liked the San Angelo area and who knows maybe one day we’ll volunteer for the state park. A few evening we were treated some fabulous sunsets.

Our next stop was 197 miles away at Blanco State Park in Blanco TX. A small, less than 40 sites, a campground where larger RV’s will be limited. They have some FHU's but they are under lots of trees, we chose a 30amp water/electric site for $20/night with our pass. Site 15 was plenty long enough for us and with the cold rainy weather 30amp was jut fine. We chose Blanco because of its proximity to San Antonio, our next stop is the TX Grand Design Rally.

We did get to walk the park, find the parks geocache but again the rains came and there isn't much to Blanco. 

Bridge to campground, there are emergency exits if this floods

Large table, think we could fit about 50 friends around it

We really like the TX State Parks and are sad our visits to them are over for the time being. They've been a great place to ride the out the cold rainy weather that's plagued us for the last few weeks. 

Due to the rain over the last few weeks I've gotten lots of reading done but not many steps in.  Thankfully the weather looks good for the rally. 

Until next time...