Texas to Denver taking the scenic route

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Tuesday May 14 - These past 3 days have been exhausting for me. I invested Monday and Tuesday moving out of the house that I have been housesitting at for the past 3 months. I may have just been housesitting but in the almost 3 months I stayed there I have set up things a lot. So I had to get all of my stuff out and groceries and stuff out of the fridge, etc., out as well, which turned out to be quite a chore.

As I loaded my truck and then pulled away I felt a great deal of sadness. We have had so many good times there over the years. And countless happy moments.

After taking the stuff out I went over to my sisters and I visited a bit and rested. The hot weather today had just sucked all the energy out of me.

So after visiting a bit I eased over to Harmony and backed my truck up to my travel trailer that is my home base in Texas to take the stuff out of it that couldn’t wait till morning.

After I set things up good enough for the night I turned in.

I had already decided that I would probably leave on Friday rather than try to rush my unpacking and repacking of things and try to leave on Wednesday.

Wednesday May 15 - It was raining heavily when I woke up today. That was annoying as it meant the ground and grass would be wet and I would have to be careful about where I set things down while I sorted things out. Instead of making things cooler also all the rain did was make the air super humid and muggy. But I had work to do so…..oh well.

I dug into things and except for a break for coffee with my sister Debbie and supper and a break every now and then to cool off I kept at it till about 8PM tonight but have gotten everything ready to go now.

So I could actually leave tomorrow (Thursday ) but will look over things again as well as go over to see my mother and sister again in College Station before I go.

One thing about it, the hot muggy weather has confirmed my belief again that I don’t want to spend another summer in Texas.

Once the evening came it cooled down and a breeze kicked up a little bit and it was actually quite pleasant looking out at the green trees waving in the breeze and enjoying the fresh country air. And it is always so nice to just enjoy the quiet here. No annoying neighbors nearby.

I have been looking at my route out of Texas using my large scale Rand McNalley road atlas. I will go out of Bryan/College Station on Hwy 21 West to Bastrop where I will catch Hwy 71 out of Bastrop and through South Austin and west towards Fredericksburg, perhaps making a side trip to Pedernales Falls and either camping there overnight at Pedernales State Park or continuing on to a very nice roadside park west of Stonewall to overnight park in free for the night. I don’t intend to push my truck for long distance daily drives on this trip as it has over 333,000 miles on it. The roadside park at Stonewall is very nice for free overnight parking and just a bit east of Fredericksburg. Of course they have free Wifi in the park. They also have an excellent museum of the Pacific war in Fredericksburg nearby but I have already been to it.

From Fredericksburg I intend to go Northwest up Hwy 87 to Big Springs stopping for a bit in Mason to tour once again the site of Ft Mason which was Robert E. Lee’s last command in the U S Army and where he made his decision to fight for the Confederacy in the Civil War. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Mason_(Texas)

From Mason I will continue on to Big Springs stopping at any points of interest I see along the way. At Big Springs I will check out Big Springs state park which is supposed to have a nice scenic drive and overlook. http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/state-parks/big-spring

After Big Springs I will get on Hwy 350 to Snyder and then Hwy 208 to Spur so as to get on Hwy 70 north which is marked as a scenic route on my map.

I will explore Caprock Canyons State Park, http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/state-parks/caprock-canyons , and then on hwy 207 north to Palo Duro State Park , http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/state-parks/palo-duro-canyon after which I will continue north to Stinnet where I will cut across to Dumas and catch Hwy 87 again to take to Raton, New Mexico, and then over Raton Pass into Colorado.

So that will take care of the first leg of my trip. It will be quite a trip as I am planning on going all the way north via National Parks to Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada.

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Comments

[Home and Away]

See you soon...
at which time I will suggest that you also visit Jasper National Park. The drive between Banff and Jasper is beautiful, as is the stop at Lake Louise.