Spring Creek Critters

As I've indicated in a previous post, we're currently staying at Spring Creek Marina and RV Park on the shores of Lake Nasworthy in San Angelo, Texas. I posted entries on this park back in 2011 and 2012, so I've not posted any this time. Below are links to my previous entries if you care to read them:

• Spring Creek Marina and RV Park (May 2011)
• Life at Spring Creek RV Park (June 2011)
• The Worst of Humanity (June 2011)
• The Good Things at Spring Creek (June 2011)
• Return to Spring Creek (August 2012)

With the new management, the park is much better run than when we stayed here in 2011 and 2012. From Monday through Thursday, it is really a pleasant place to stay, but once the weekend arrives, things get a bit wild. This is, after all, the "Oasis of West Texas." People from all over West Texas come here to enjoy the lake, the shade, and the grass, things relatively rare in West Texas.

I really enjoy watching the animals at Spring Creek, and you can see some almost every day. Below are some pictures I recently snapped.

During one of my walks, I spotted this cactus growing about 8 or 10 feet above the ground in the fork of a tree.

I spotted these deer early one morning near the park's entrance.

This confused deer thinks it is a turkey.

Black squirrels are not that common, but they are along Spring Creek. I've seen them along the creek all the way from Mertzon and Sherwood (about 25 to 30 miles west of Angelo). They seem to be as numerous as regular squirrels in the park.

We leave here tomorrow. Our home for the next week will be an RV park in Junction, Texas, one of our favorite small towns in Texas.

I'll see you down the road.

Catching Up in San Angelo

We've been in San Angelo for a week now, and we've been pretty busy. Let me catch you up.

We always have the regular chores to do, such as grocery shopping, laundry, and such. We also spent a morning getting our taxes done with our local tax preparer. Uncle Sam always wants his cut, you know.

But most of our time has been spent on acquiring a house. We've now moved up the list at Rio Concho West sufficiently that we spent a day looking at available houses there. We are meeting with the reps there again tomorrow to discuss 2 possible houses. We also spent one morning with our former builder, who has a new development near our former home. We like his houses and could see ourselves living in one of his homes again, so we are giving that option some consideration.

We had planned to stay only a week, then head to the Hill Country for a while. But because of the housing situation, we've extended our stay in Angelo for 3 more nights. We hope to leave on Thursday, but if we make a deal on a home, we may have to stay longer to select carpeting, tile, and other house options.

We've had a pretty good stay at Spring Creek. The RV park itself seems to be under new management since the last time we stayed here about 3 years ago, and it appears to be run much better. WiFi has been reliable this time, for example, and they do a good job of keeping the grass cut and the trash picked up. But it still gets wild on weekends and holidays out here. This past weekend was Easter weekend. Folks started pouring in Thursday afternoon, and most did not leave until late Sunday. I can't believe how many people from all around West Texas come here. There were throngs, and they left behind lots of trash. But they weren't too unruly. A solid police presence really helps keep folks in line. Still, I prefer not to be here when it is busy. We'll have to look at other options when we return.

Good Eats: Owl Drug Fountain and Grill, Coleman, Texas

One of the things Donna and I like to do during our travels is discover those local eateries, especially in small towns, that really serve some good grub. We found such a place during our recent stay at Hord's Creek Lake.

We had noticed a billboard while driving through Coleman advertising the grill and fountain at the Owl Drug Store in downtown Coleman. So when we went in to town on Saturday to do laundry, we stopped off at the drug store for lunch. We were glad we did.

The fountain and grill is located at the back right of the store. It's not hard to find -- just follow the steady stream of people that fill the booths and counter surrounding the fountain and grill. It was about 12:30 when we arrived, and we felt lucky to find an empty booth. The place stayed busy our entire stay.

The grill closes about 1:00 or 1:30, and cooking starts early for breakfast. The popular item at the grill, though, seems to be an old fashioned hamburger. Donna and I ordered the lunch special, which was a cheeseburger, chips, and drink for $7.50. After our first bite, we looked at each other, nodded, and smiled. Yep, these were hamburgers like we used to get years ago. It's hard to find a burger like this anymore. There's nothing fancy about it, no piling on of extra ingredients. This is just a solid, well-made old fashioned burger.

From the vantage point of our booth near the grill, we were able to watch the orders being prepared. When we saw the onion rings, we both wished we had ordered some. They looked like the real deal. Fries and tater tots were also being dished up. And since the place is a soda fountain, there are also malts and other ice cream treats available.

I know that on our next trip to Hord's Creek Lake, we'll be returning to downtown Coleman to have another good meal at the Owl Drug Store.

Back in San Angelo

After over 3 months of roaming and wandering, we're back in San Angelo, but we're still homeless.

We're in town for a week to take care of some things. We are staying at Spring Creek marina and RV Park, located on Lake Nasworthy on the city's west side. We stayed here quite a bit back in 2011, but there is a different manager now and the place seems to be run better overall.

We have an appointment with Rio Concho West to check the progress of our movement up the waiting list for a home there. We are also meeting with our previous home builder just as a backup. We'll also spend a lot of time just eating at all the places we've missed these past 3 months.

For the past 10 days or so, we've been without both Internet and television, so we have a lot of catching up to do. We've missed a lot of news, especially on the political front. And I've fallen behind on the blog. We seem to have both good television and good Internet here at Spring Creek, so I have some work to do.

I'm not sure yet where we go after this week. We've suffered through some cool weather the past few days, so we definitely want some place warm. But I suspect we will stay in Texas. If we are nearing the top of the wait list at CW, then we'll also be staying close to Angelo.

Hord's Creek Lake, March 2016

Donna and I are currently spending 6 nights at Hord's Creek Lake near Coleman, Texas. We spent several days here in April 2015. Since I wrote about the park at that time, I won't add too much at this time.

This is a very nice Army Corp of Engineers park. We especially enjoy the oak trees. This is basically the tree line in this part of Texas, so West Texans almost feel like they are in the jungle here.

Unfortunately, the lake is at a very low level, but that seems to be part for the course for West Texas lakes these days.

We arrived yesterday when temps reached 80 degrees. Today is almost a carbon copy of yesterday. Last night we had a fire -- our first on this entire trip -- and this morning Donna cooked a big breakfast outside after we returned from a long walk. We've seen deer and plenty of squirrels.

But tomorrow a cool front is expected to push through, dropping daytime temps as much as 20 degrees and bringing some rain. It's been nice to spend time outside, but we'll have to move back inside tomorrow. It's  been great watching kids on spring break ride their bicycles and play around the campground. It's just great to see kids playing outside like kids, without smart phones or computer games. If more kids would just try it, I think they'd like it.

We have no WiFi nor any TV reception. I probably won't post any more entries until we get to San Angelo early next week.

It's great to be back in Texas.

Lake Colorado City State Park

We are now in Lake Colorado City State Park, just southwest of the city of Lake Colorado City, which is on Interstate 20 between Midland and Abilene. The 500 acre park, which is leased from a local utility company, was acquired in 1972 and opened the next year. The lake is formed by Morgan Creek, and was built by Texas Electric Service Company to provide cooling water for the power plant. The landscape is typical West Texas country. It is gently rolling with mesquite trees. White tailed deer, raccoons, armadillos, squirrels, rabbits, and prairie dogs are the most common mammals. Crappie, perch, catfish, bass, and red drum can be found in the lake.

There are no full hookup sites in the park.78 sites have water and electric, many with 50 amp. There are a handful of pull-thru sites. RV sites can be found in the Mesquite Circle Camping Area and the Rolling Hills Camping Area, where we stayed in site 71. Each of these camping areas has a restroom facility complete with showers. There are no curtains in the showers, though, so privacy is lacking. Our site was pretty level. I was able to park my truck in front of the trailer, but longer rigs will have trouble fitting in the assigned area on many sites. There are also 34 sites with water only in the Lakeview Camping Area. In addition, there are 11 "limited use" cabins. These sturdy buildings have A/C, heat, microwave, refrigerator, and bunks. They do not have bathroom facilities, but public restrooms/showers are located nearby.

The Rolling Hills Camping Area. Our truck and trailer in center, with restrooms/showers directly behind.

Restrooms/showers in our camping area. Note access point at peak of roof.

Our rig in site #71. Sites were nice, with covered picnic table.

Cabins

Close up of one of the well built cabins.

Lakeside camping area. Only water is available here.

Entrance to the Mesquite Circle Camping Area.

WiFi was available but not reliable. We were next to the restroom facility in our area and I noticed the access point mounted on its roof. However, the signal was never strong and it was in and out. We were not able to pick up any television reception on our aerial. The best thing was radio. We picked up one FM station out of nearby Colorado City (107.1) and I loved it. It played mainly older country music by artists such as Conway Twitty, George Strait, George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline, and others. It even played Johnny Horton's "Battle of New Orleans." What a treat! I don't care for the country music produced today, so I really enjoyed this station.

There is really no hiking to speak of, although the map indicates a short trail along the shore.

The lake was way, way down. I had hoped it would be higher because of the rain the area received last year and so far this year. Instead, we found fishing piers closed and the water line very low. It's pretty depressing.

This pier was closed due to low water. Note the pier across the cove.

Close-Up of the pier across the cove in the above picture. I don't know what tore it from its foundation and dumped it in the water.

Fishing pier resting on a sloping bank due to low water.

The park is very quiet. It is well away from any major highway, so there is no highway noise. I was surprised at how empty the park was. Spring break for most schools in West Texas started this week, so I expected the park to be lively. However, there were no more than 6 or 8 sites occupied in our camping area during our stay.

Boat ramp near North end of park. Note water line is below concrete.

Playground equipment in day use area at north end of park. North end of lake is visible in background.

We've Been Making Miles

Let me catch you up on our last few days.

We left Brantley Lake State Park in the Carlsbad, New Mexico, area last Wednesday. We were finally heading home. As we neared Lamesa, Texas, the sky began to darken, and we knew we were in for some rain. We stopped for lunch at K-Bob's Steakhouse in Lamesa and had a very good steak and sides for a very decent price. We've eaten at that K-Bob's for over 30 years and we've always enjoyed our meals there.

As we stepped outside after lunch, we were met with a light rain. We were running low on gas, but I didn't want to stop at a gas station, so I just emptied one of my 5 gallon cans into the tank and we hit the road. When traveling in the west, I always care spare gas cans. The rain picked up almost immediately. When we got to Big Spring, where we would be spending the next 4 nights, the skies really opened. We checked into our RV park and I slipped on my rain gear so that I could set up the trailer. It's not fun working in the rain, but it didn't look like it was going to slow. But I have good rain gear, so it really wasn't too unpleasant.

We spent the next 4 nights in Big Spring, seeing our daughter and grandsons almost every day. We also caught up on our laundry and grocery shopping. We finally pulled out this morning and headed east to Lake Colorado City State Park; I'll report on this park in another entry.

I've not had WiFi for the past 4 nights, so I've fallen behind some in my reporting. I currently have connectivity, though, so I'll try to catch up some. I'll jump ahead a bit here and tell you we are about to move to another park and I do not expect connectivity there. We will spend 6 nights there, so it may be a while before I report after we leave Lake Colorado City SP.

Regardless, I hope to see you down the road.