Back to Texas – Part 1

For quite awhile there, well into January, it looked doubtful that we would be able to get away this winter. Amy tried to get Kinsley into the before-and-after-school program, as she did last fall and last winter, but it is all filled up, and the school board can’t find any more early childhood educators. So it seemed that we would have to stay home to provide child care.

But then Sande remembered that an old school friend of Vanessa’s lives just around the block and she has two kids who go to K’s school and travel on the same bus as she does. So we contacted her to see whether she would be willing to look after K before and after school for a few weeks. She was happy to do it, and Amy was agreeable, so we started to plan a trip just a bit more than a week before we wanted to leave.

Our first idea was to head to Tucson, Arizona, then work our way back across New Mexico and into Texas before heading back home. We really liked southern Arizona and New Mexico when we’d been there in 2012 and have been trying to get back there ever since. We planned a 5-day drive to Tucson, with overnight stays in Indianapolis IN, Springfield MO, McLean TX, and Corrizozo NM.We used our new Harvest Hosts membership to book a stay in Indianapolis and a couple nights in Tucson.

But Sande had a really bad cough and a few weak spells, so she went to the doctor and discovered that she had pneumonia. She got a prescription for antibiotics and plenty of fluids and rest. So we decided the drive to Tucson would be too much, and we settled instead on going only as far as Texas—less driving and more time for resting and relaxing in warm weather.

Day 1: Feb 11

We were packed up and ready to go by about 10:45, but within a block, it became clear that the driver’s side window was off its rails (as it had been when we were leaving for Texas in a snowstorm two years earlier (The Road to Texas: Part I)), so we turned around. It took only about 15 minutes for me to get it sorted out (since I’d already been through it once before), and, after filling the fuel tank, we were on the 401 heading west by 11:15.

Our only stop before Windsor was a pee break at the Tilbury ONRoute station, and crossing the border via the tunnel was, as usual, a breeze. The customs officer took a peek inside the RV to make sure we weren’t smuggling Mexicans or Arabs or pets, and we shared a laugh about our pets (a pair of stuffies that Kinsley got for us to take along) before he waved us on.

We motored down the I-75 to Toledo OH, where we took the 475 bypass down to US 24 southwest. It was a lovely sunny day and the temperature was rising nicely. At Fort Wayne, we got on the I-69 south and stopped for gas at a Pilot truck stop near Daleville IN. When I got out to pump the gas, I discovered that I’d dropped a couple of chocolate-covered almonds into my lap somewhere along the way, and they’d melted into a sticky blob that made a mess of the velour seat and the crotch of my black jeans.

The GPS couldn’t find the brewery where we were booked to stay the night, so we had to punch the address into the cell phone (for which we’d purchased a 28-day US SIM card) in order to find our way. Google took us off onto some nice secondary roads, and we found Triton Brewing Co in a very quiet residential area on the northeastern fringes of the Indianapolis metropolis. It was just after 7 PM when we arrived, so we went in to the restaurant for some dinner. The place was almost empty, the staff were very friendly, the IPA I had was great (Sande couldn’t have alcohol because she was still on antibiotics), and the food was good pub fare.

The barman  told us we could park anywhere in the large, level, paved lot for our stay, so we moved Fred back a bit, further away from the street, and set up for the night. It was very quiet, we went to sleep almost immediately, and we both slept like rocks for well over 8 hours.

Day 2: Feb 12

The next morning, we woke up just after 7. We Googled and found a promising breakfast place nearby called Café Audrey at the Fort. Driving over there, we realized that we were on what used to be a military base; many of the old brick barracks and other buildings had been re-purposed, while the remaining fields had been infilled with new townhouses and apartments. We found that this was Fort Benjamin Harrison until it was decommissioned in 1996, now called Fort Ben for the hip factor.

Our breakfast was good: Sande had a yoghurt bowl with fruit and nuts and toast, while I had huevos rancheros. We didn’t linger long because we were hoping to get to Memphis mid-afternoon so we could check out Beale Street. By 9, we were heading west through the heart of Indianapolis on I-70 and then on across the plains. After a couple of hours, beyond Terre Haute and the state line, we turned south on I-57 at Effingham IL.

Sande realized that we were going to be driving right through the heart of the pre-contact Mississippian culture’s homeland, where many of the mounds associated with that culture have been archeologically excavated and some are open to the public. So she spent several hours on the cell phone researching the locations of these sites to see whether we might be able to visit some. Sadly none that were anywhere near our route appeared to be open or easily accessible.

In the meantime, I realized we’d probably be getting to Memphis too early for blues music on Beale, let alone to stop for the night. So we decided it might be better to head on to somewhere around Little Rock AR. Sande found that we could cut an angle across from Sikeston (just across the Mississippi River) to Little Rock on secondary highways (US-60 and US-67) instead of heading south on I-55 to Memphis and then west on I-40.

After stopping for lunch at Huckleberry’s Pub in Mounds IL (cheeseburger and beer for me, salad and water for Sande, for less than $20), we barreled across the Mississippi and on through Arkansas. We stopped for gas at Poplar Bluff, where we turned south on US-67, and somewhere south of there Sande took over the wheel for the first time on this trip. What started as a light drizzle got steadily heavier, and the fields all around us were covered with water and flocks of white and black birds.

Just before we got to Little Rock, the rain let up and we stopped at a gas station to video-call Kinsley and Amy. I took over the wheel and drove through the horror of Little Rock’s expressways in the tail end of rush hour. We stopped finally at the Bass Pro Shop in Bryant, just west of the city. Our iOverlander app indicated that this store allowed overnight camping, and the clerk at the information desk directed us to a back corner of the massive lot. We found a spot well away from the loading docks, with bush behind us. We couldn’t detect any noise from the freeway or from surrounding streets.

We warmed up some leftover chicken soup that we’d brought from home, and once again were in bed pretty early. The site was as quiet as anticipated, and we slept soundly for almost 10 hours.

Day 3: Feb 13

We had cold cereal for breakfast and went looking for a place to get coffee (mostly so we could use their washroom for our morning constitutionals). We got a bit mixed up in the roads alongside the interstate, but eventually found a McDonalds. The service was slow, and the coffee was awful, but we made do. Then we headed west again, with the Texas border less than two hours away.

Originally, when we were planning to stop for the night in Memphis, we thought we’d spend this night somewhere near Dallas before heading further south into Texas. But because we’d come as far as Little Rock and got an early start, we realized we could easily go further if we wished. It promised to be a lovely, warm, sunny day, so we started thinking about finding a state park where we could camp for the rest of the week.

We stopped at the Texas Welcome Center in Texarkana and got a map, a state guide book, and a booklet listing all public campgrounds in the state.  As I drove southwest toward Dallas, Sande started researching campgrounds in the northern part of the state, places we hadn’t visited before. We settled on Lake Whitney State Park, northwest of Waco, about an hour south of Dallas.

Traffic around Dallas was horrific, as expected, and it continued heavy on the I-35 southbound. We were happy to pull off at the little town of Hillsboro around 3:30, where we stopped for supplies at a Brookshire’s grocery store. Then it was about 30 miles on a secondary highway, through the town of Whitney and on out to the park.

The gatehouse was still open, and we bought an annual Parks Pass (so we could save the entrance fees at any State Park) and booked a site by the lake for three nights. The park was almost empty, though it was completely booked for the weekend.

I barbequed burgers and Sande made a salad for supper, and we had delicious made-in-store tortilla chips and guacamole as an appetizer. We played a round of Scrabble before setting up our bed. We put the electric heater on low to keep the edge off the overnight chill, which would be near freezing. We read for a bit before turning out the lights. After a sunset over the lake it was completely dark and silent.

Our vacation was truly underway.

For the slideshow associated with this story, see Texas ’24 Photos 1.