We are moving right along....

 

Our Location: Mile Marker 144, near Van Horn, Texas

 

The morning dawned coolish in Brady, Tx and we turned the heat on when we got into the Dogsled to give us a bit of a warm up. We packed everything up, checked the tires, pulled in the slides and connected the Igloo and Dogsled, wheels rolling just a tad after 8:30 AM, CMT. 

 

Prickly Pear Cactus and a Century Plant along the roadside.

More Prickly Pear.

A very long and lonesome highway is Tex 190 West.

 

Course hard top with lots of well worn grooves make up Tex 190 West.

We continued along Texas Highway 190West for most of the morning until we reached I-10 near Iraan, Tx. The highway was good, only a very few rough spots and even then, not that rough but it was a long drive on a two lane course hard top. Some rolling hills, some flat land and again into the rolling hills. We found it very uninteresting and that has us thinking we won't be using it again. We would drop straight down from Menard to I-10 instead of following Tex 190 for such a long distance. 

 

You could build a house from all those rocks and have enough to build another one too.

Our rock cuts back home don't have prickly pear growing out of 'em.

A stunning view!

 

Fuel is running anywhere from about $4.69 to $5.40, with gas usually being between $1.50 and $2.00 cheaper per gallon than diesel.  We gave the Big Dog a drink at Murphy's in Stockton where he lapped up about 27 gallons of his preferred drink at $4.99 per gallon. Considering we had a bit of a headwind/crosswind in places he did well. Temps are running from about 45F/8C night time lows to about 78F/29C for day time highs. 

 

We are seeing the outline for far off mountains.

The rolling hills of Texas on I-10 West bound.

 

Our original plan was to stop at or near Fort Stockton (226 miles/364 km from Brady), but we opted to keep the wheels going since it was pretty early in the day to stop. We added another 100 miles/160 km to the end of our day which makes things easier for the next couple of days. We travelled a total of 342 miles/550 km, which is a long day for us.

 

 Much better than our morning drive views. See those wind turbine way over there?

Much of the land in this stretch looks like this.

 

Prickly Pear cactus has been evident for a number of days now and even the yucca type Century Plants are in abundance too. Lots of scrub land today, lots of oil being pumped out of the ground too, along with a fairly big number of wind turbines. In fact as we were just coming back from our walk we noticed a single blade for a wind turbine sitting on a very, very, very long joined trailer pulled in on the opposite side of us, my goodness but he's long!!!

 

Very artistic way to hold the dirt on the side of the overpass, don't ya think?

The view out our door tonight.

 

Birthday wishes go out to SIL Barb (brother Rick's lovely bride) who turns 29 again today. We hope it's been a fantastic day Barb even though it's cold and damp. I asked Dad to have a piece of cake for both Riley and I!! Also happy birthday to Hazel, granddaughter of Barb the birthday lady. They share the same day, Barb just had it first. Hazel however is not 29 but 4. Happy Birthday Hazel Beanerrrrrrrrr. Haha. 

 

Not a bad view when you turn your head either.

The picnic spots here at the rest area. They include a grill, garbage cans, shelter, wind break and table with benches. Sign says NO SLEEPING ON TABLE AND/OR BENCHES .

A chat with daughter Bradey last night, they are all fine and Auston is enjoying his swimming lessons a tiny bit, so that's good news. He's such a shy little fella. Lincoln is growing in leaps and bounds. A chat with Dad today finds their temps in the single digits, I think he said 7C/44F with dampness in the air and high winds. Seems most of the trees are leafless now due to the winds for the last couple of days. 

 

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit. 

 

Until next time..

 Take care, be safe, 

 

Deb 

Our last day here at Brady...

 Our location: Richards Park, Brady, Texas

After yesterday's rain we had a very nice day, with sun shine and cool temps of 70F/20C. Overnight our low temps reached about 45F/8C. 

 

Rain yesterday out our door.

The bathhouse in the rain. Taken through the screen door.

We had a few errands to run today and after a walk around the park we headed out to accomplish them. First was groceries, which we found at Walmart. Diesel which we found at Valero for $4.98 per gallon, and we needed to drop by 201 East Main street to pay for the park. We accomplished those few things in about an hour and the rest of the day we were home doing a few things such as preparing a big pot of soup for our next few road days and of course lunch for today, bit of cleaning up and the usual house keeping things.

Clouds late yesterday afternoon. 

A few of the feral cats waiting for breakfast this morning.

We have enjoyed our stay here although the chiggars did a put a bit of a damper on our walking, we had to avoid any grassy areas which there seems to be a lot of here. This park is much bigger than one suspects with about 45 to 50 sites in all. Many are tent sites with electrical and water available, about 15 or so are for trailers, rv's and anything requiring full hookups. We have only hooked up the electrical as we have no need for anything else. There are many reasons for people to come to this park, a large playground for children, actually two of them. One even has a small rock climbing area. There are at least 3 baseball fields with lights and a soccer field and practice field as well. 

The muddy Brady River with a lot of ducks.

Very muddy, but not deep.

 I chatted with my dad's youngest brother Don and his wife Joan last night for a bit. We welcome them as they are following along as we travel during our winter adventure. They live close to where Riley and I lived in the little stone house for the last two winters. I had morning coffee with Joan while we lived in the house and really missed it over the summer but it was too far to drive every day. 

 

Riley saw this fella on our outing today.

I wonder if it's an Elk Lodge.

We're getting that southwest flavour starting.

 Tomorrow morning we pull out for points further south and west. We will have a few travel days in a row as we couldn't find anything appealing between here and our next lay over destination, so we decided to do a few one night stops in a row. 

A very pink she shed.

We turn left at that building to get back to the park.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit. 

We turn left here to get to the park.

A beautiful entrance, isn't it?

And now you've reached the park.

Until next time...

Take care, be safe, 

Deb

A truly do nothing day.

 Our location: Richard’s Park, Brady, Texas

(This post was full accomplished using my iPad, a first for me, sorry for the bad spacing but things disappear quickly.)

It started raining last night and has rained off and on all day. We watched a couple of movies, I went for a very short walk to get photos for today’s post and that is it. 

Fees for the park.

There are feral cats here, someone came by to feed them this morning. About 7 or 8 was the number we counted. The majority are a form of tuxedo cat, like HRH Miss Jennie was. ( Riley’s cat).

I think what thought were sand fleas are in fact chiggers, similar to fleas but not quite the same.

One of the two pavilions here.

The second pavilion.

Notice the crooked pole?

 

There is a wind advisory for a number of counties until 9 pm this evening although currently there is no wind and the sun is shining from a brilliant blue sky.

The way or out.

The site next to us.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you all had a fantastic day doing whatever it is you did.

Until next time,

Take care, be safe,

Deb

We travelled farther than expected today.....

Our Location: Richard's Park, Brady, Texas

 

When we woke this morning in Marshall, Tx it was coolish at about 60F/15C with a bit of humidity in the air already. Our plan was a regular 4 to 5 hour travel day. We pulled out of the park at 8:32 am, I know because I glanced at the clock. 

 

Somewhere between Tyler and I-35 South.

Confusing the number of highways here.

 

The route we chose had us taking I-20W to Tyler, TX and then once again catching Texas 31 West. We took this route before and enjoyed it. We did so again today. For those that are interested, the beginning of the route is a bit chopped up with lots of lights and slow downs but after about 30 minutes it spans out into a 4 lane semi divided highway for most of the way to I-35 South near Waco. I say MOST not all, a few slow downs here and there in a few of the towns but it rolls along well and the road is in pretty good condition. The only thing is you have to pay attention to direction changes as I don't feel Texas advertises some things well. That being one of them. However we managed to make our way through Tyler, Athens, Corsicana, and Hubbard, we eventually entered into Bellmead and popped onto I-35S which carried us through Waco to Hewitt our planned stop for today. . 

 

Course pavement but the bridge joints are good.

 

 But as the clock was just hitting high noon we kept going. We followed I-35S to Temple and hung a right onto I-14/TX 190 toward Kileen and Fort Hood. This road was also a nice 4 lane road for a long way but it eventually narrowed down to a regular 2 lane road with a few passing lanes when it turned to just Tx 190. We ventured through Lampasas, Richland Springs, Rochelle, San Saba and eventually we ended up here at Richard's Park in Brady, Texas. The road was decent overall with a couple of humpy bumpy spots but not many. 

A river we crossed.

I paid this price today.

A retaining wall on Tx 190.

Beauty wise it is definitely worth the drive but I think sand fleas may make it seem less so, however we shall see. The RV park is past the baseball fields and is situated near a very large pavilion. A bathhouse, play ground, disc golf and a number of other things make up the park. I'll post more tomorrow. 

 

A beautiful home we passed today.

For our friend Jim...the hunt is on, tools vary as per the hunter.

 

I called my dad upon our arrival and set up which was around 4 pm ct, 5 pm his time. We chatted for a while and he told us the weather there is down right summer like, and we are so happy to hear that. It's about time they had some nice weather. 

 

Some Texas country side...

The reason we came to this park is odd maybe. My late husband's name was Richard. Richard's Park is on Memory Lane. Our middle daughter's name is Bradey. About a half hour or so out of town we passed Riley Road. Only Courtney and I are missing representation here, perhaps I'll find the connection tomorrow. Although I did chat with Courtney last night. It just seemed to me that Richard's Park on Memory Lane in Brady, Texas was a place we perhaps should visit and so we have. 

 

Our spot in site # 8. 

 

Temps were warm today here, 85F/28C with very strong winds, of course they were side and head winds all day. The Big Dog was thirsty doing all that work. Diesel has been steadily going down and we are now looking at $4.35 to around $5 +, with most in the range of $4.75 or so. 

 

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit. 

 

Until next time..

 take care, be safe, 

 

Deb