Circle Trip Stop 2: Lake Brownwood State Park

Lake Brownwood State Park

9:00 PM, June 29, 2013

This as been an all around great day! It started at 5:45 AM when I first woke up and got out of bed. I fixed my usual camping breakfast, washed the dishes, and started breaking camp. I followed the checklist pretty much like usual, except this time, I did not turn of the refrigerator and I stowed the Keurig in the kitchen sink as I did on the Grand Canyon trip. I was all ready to pull out by 7:15, but I had a slight little problem.

The Colby T has running lights along the sides, front, and back. I had only seen them on a few times before. They are tied into the trucks daylight sensor. After I pulled the truck up a bit to get the chocks, I saw that all the lights stayed on, including my brake lights. It had me puzzled for a while, until I realized that the lights always stay on for awhile after I park. I just never notice it in the daylight. I tested it a few times, and that was what was happening!

On the way out of the park, I saw a huge jack rabbit, a large group of wild turkeys, and a blue heron down where people are usually swimming in the river. I saw a lot of deer throughout the whole trip.

I used the OnStar app to get routed to Lake Brownwood SP. I pushed the preview to see how I would be going, and it seemed so goofy that I actually hit the OnStar button and had them redo it. It came out the same. I traveled 146 miles with only one long stretch of 40 miles. The rest ranged from 2 miles to 18. Most were at about 11. I would take a left and go North for a while. Then I took a right to head east. It was great. They were a mixture of farm roads, ranch roads, and smaller highways.

It took me through several towns I had never been to. One was London, which looked like an apocalypse movie set. It had never been big, but man. It had fallen on some hard times. It was weirdly beautiful. Another was Brady. The road I was on dead ended on the town square smack dab in front of a beautiful courthouse. I took a quick photo while I was stopped at the light.

The park is nice. I am in site 77, which I picked because it looked easiest of the choices to back in. I did a great job backing in. I went super slow and readjusted as much as I needed without letting anybody watching make me nervous. That's 2 for 2! I was pleased to see that I had enough bars of phone service to actually use my phone a bit. Plus, there is WiFi at the HQ.

The refrigerator kept cold on the drive, so I took the effort needed to balance the trailer with the BAL leveler. I also hooked up the water, but decided to wait until later to hook up the sewer. I don't need to dump yet. I didn't think I had sewer at this park, so I was really being careful to conserve “tank”.

I changed into my walking clothes and took a quick trip down to the fishing pier. I came back another way. A tree was blocking my way, and I think I brushed against some poison ivy getting around it. I used tecnu as soon as I got back to the camper. I washed off and finished doing some of the set up stuff that I had neglected earlier, like setting up the kitchen cabinets. I wasn't hungry due to the heat for the third day in a row. With all the hiking, that is keeping me way below my calorie levels.

I decided to bite the bullet and take another longer hike around parts of the park. I wrapped paper towels around a cold bottle of water and sealed it in some tin foil. Then I hit the trail towards the pier. I was gonna branch out from there. Instead of turning off to climb down the hill to the pier, I stayed on the main trail, which got smaller and smaller, until it just about ended high on a bluff at an old stone fireplace. This park must have been a lot different in the old days. Anyway, to get down to the pier level, I had to walk down a foot wide rut that went almost straight down a hill. I'm not sure if it was an animal trail or a place where water runs off. At street level, I just walked around from area to area. At one point, I got so hot and tired that I sat at a picnic table in an unused camping sit and just rested until I thought I could go on. The hill up from the pier was murder going up. I got to the Colby T, stripped, wiped sweat off of everywhere, and all but chugged one of the two beers I decided not to drink last night.

Once I had cooled down a bit, I decided to go for a drive to get a dish scrubber. I went to a gas station about 4 miles from the park. I should have bought gas, but it was so crowded I didn't want to bother. On the way back into the park, I stopped at HQ and downloaded some things to my kindle using the WiFi. Then I came back to the Colby T and read for a long time before fixing dinner. Tonight I had read beans with rice. Gotta love those Knorr instant side dishes. I hooked up the TV just to see if I could get a channel, but the power went off for a second at about 5:30 and I didn't bother turning it back on. That's good, because I did reset the clock on the microwave, only to have the power go off again at 6:25. It went off once more at about five minutes later. Each time it was only for a second, but it worried me. I didn't know if it was just my camper or the whole park.

At around 7 or so, I decided to take my final hike of the day. I went to the pier, then took the roads back to camp. It was about 8:15 when I got back. It was still hot, but not as bad as earlier. I took another bath and washed my hair before settling down to work on this. Now I am going to read some more and go to bed early so I can get up and walk earlier tomorrow.

3:38 PM, June 30

I woke up right around 6:00 and just went on my hike. I wrapped a bottle of water in paper towels and tinfoil to at least keep it lukewarm by the end of the hike. Then I set off on the park road and headed for the boat ramp area to catch the Lakeside Trail where it starts behind the Beach Lodge. It was a nice morning. The air was cool and breezy. The sky was cloudy, but it wasn't what I would call overcast.

The trail started out fine and then kind of got lost in a thin little strip of overgrown brush and poison ivy. I kept going and came to an amazing set of stairs that led up to the main lodge. I am going to hike directly to it tonight by road, because I didn't get to take any pictures. My camera must have stayed on all night! I charged it before I went to bed. Anyway, the trail got better from there and gave some magnificent views of the lake. All along the way there were ancient fire pits and benches from days gone by. At one point, a tree was down and I had to scale some rocks to get around it. It wasn't terrible, but I'm sure my blood pressure spiked a bit. I am afraid of any situation where I can't get a good foothold or grab something to help me balance. It was worth it though. I had a very serene an beautiful walk. There was not one living soul around until I was almost back at the Colby T. Apparently, nobody else gets up at dawn to hike the trails.

The entire hike lasted a little over two and a half hours. It was cool the whole time, but the humidity and long range activity had me soaked. I got my stuff and went to the bath house for a real shower. I started out fully dressed so I could rinse out my clothes. The less stinky they are in my dirty clothes bag the better. I laid them out in the bed of my truck to dry. I felt refreshed and energized.

I fixed breakfast and read for awhile, enjoying the coolness of the Colby T. I decided that I would go into Brownwood to see whatever sites I could. I knew most of them would be closed. I should have gone yesterday when it was hot and miserable, but I wasn't thinking. Anyway, I decided to take a nap to pass the time. It was so cold in the Colby T that I actually got an arfghan that my mother crocheted back in the 70's out of the closet. When that wasn't enough, I used N1S's little kid batman sleeping bag on top of it. I know you are thinking, “Why didn't he just adjust the AC?” The answer is easy. I didn't want to risk another hot day making it hard to keep the camper cool. Anyway, I napped for a while and then got up and headed into town.

I went to WalMart first simply because I found it as I came into town. I bought another can of squirt cheese (I would hate to run out of that delicasy!), an extra pair of shorts, a roll of paper towels, and two 1-pound boxes of strawberries. I love strawberries! I asked the checker how to get to the town square. She wasn't sure what meant, but told me the courthouse was on Main Street. Most Texans know that the courthouse of any small town is in the center of the town square. She must have been a college student from out of state.

I parked on a side street and hike all over downtown Brownwood taking pictures of the beautiful old buildings. Then I headed over to Howard Payne University to do the same. My friend, Kristina Long had commented on my FB check in at Lake Brownwood Park that her husband, Paul Long, said to say hello to his alma mater. Both places were totally deserted! It was actually kind of creepy. I felt like Charlton Heston in the Omega Man! The buildings downtown are really pretty. I'll just let you look at thee photos for yourself. Howard Payne University Campus is small, but very nice. It is all read brick buildings with straight lines. It made me feel at peace. Of course, I was the only human being anywhere near it, so of course it was peaceful.

I drove around gawking at some other stuff until I found a gas station I liked and filled up for tomorrow's trip. I had enough gas, but my parents raised me to always have more of everything you need just in case. I took a different way back by accident. I thought I was on the right highway, but I didn't remember it having two lanes going in each direction. I pushed the OnStar button and got routed back to the park. Sure enough, I was headed the wrong way. They guided me to a shortcut back to the right highway.

I stopped at the Big G grocery store. I didn't need anything, but I wanted to ask them what the castle across the lake was. I tried to find a place to park to get a picture, but the only good shot was from the bridge, and I was too chicken to take a shot driving across. I hate bridges! Anyway, they had Knorr mixes on sale for .99 so I bought a few and asked the checker about the castle. She and a customer there told me it was being built by some oil baron from Midland. He and his brother were in a “pissing contest” to see who could build the biggest house. It was huge! Crazy. I am going to look it up on the Internet.

On the way into the park, I pulled off the road and got a photo of the entrance. I also got a picture showing how the low water has affected some of the people. Their docks are helter skelter or completely sitting on dry ground. It is heart breaking. You work your entire life to finally be able to afford your lake dreamhouse and the lake levels go down to nothing. Who will buy it from you?

Anyway, I am going to offload my photos from today and then cook dinner. Tonight I am having tuna stroganoff and strawberries. I have one last hike in me. That's all.

8:30 PM

Dinner was really good. After I ate, I set the pan to cook and read until 7:00. Then I put on my stinky clothes and hiked to the Oak Lodge. I wanted to see the tower view from the top and get photos of the fancy stairways leading to the river. I wanted to use a little Gold Bond Chafing Defense Anti-Friction Formula. I had a little rubbing while walking downtown. Unfortunately, I must have left it at home. I almost didn't take the hike, just in case. I'm glad I did- no chafing. But I will try and find some Gold Bond tomorrow before hiking at Meridian.

When I got back from the hike, I went ahead and dumped my tanks and disconnected the sewer hose. Then I disconnected the water and stowed my hose in the basement. There were some men across the way trying to do something to their sewer system. One of them had gloves on and the other two had suggestions. Not sure what the problem was. There isn't much that can go wrong with a trailer sewer system. It is a tank. It fills up. You connect a hose from the trailer to the sewer hole. You pull a lever, and WALLAH, tank is dumped. Maybe their kids put stuff in it. Or they didn't use enough water to flush and built the dreaded PYRAMID OF POOP! The cure is to throw a couple of bags of ice before you tow the trailer. It rattles around and knocks everything loose. Enough of that!

Anyway, I am sitting in a very cool Colby T contemplating drinking a Jim Beam and diet coke. It is the diet coke part that is making it not quite worth the effort to get the Jim Beam out of its hidy-hole. I'll probably just read for a while and go to sleep early. I only have about 30 minutes of departure prep left to do. I am going to stow the computer in just a minute. Like the last time, I will start the Meridian post with tomorrow's travel.

One thing- the computer keeps telling me it is detecting usable WiFi tonight. I connects to the park's public network, but doesn't bring up the agreement page. It says, “little or no connectivity” anyway, which means I wouldn't be able to upload any photos, etc. I need to buy a new battery so I can sit and do it outside the HQ. Oh well.

Happy Trails!

You can see all of the photos from this trip on my photobucket site. click here