Buffalo Gap

  We left a day early to avoid forecast of rough weather. As Wise county is under severe thunderstorm warning as I type, looks like smart decision.

 We used to have the goal of visiting all of the state parks in Texas. Well life got in the way and we are way behind. For some reason, even though we drove thru the town dozens of times, we never visited Abilene State park. We can now check it off our todo list. Abilene has a nice museum we had heard about, and being addicted to museums, we visited. Frontier Texas is well worth your time if in the area. Definitely worth the $7 admission, after I played the old age card!

 A couple of views and comments about Abilene State Park.

 We have stayed in plain campsites, screened shelters and even cabins at state parks. Never one of these and these are the first I have seen in person.

 They have seven of these Yurt's. Door locked but we peeked in thru screen and they look nice inside with bed, sofa, frig and heater. Cool/coldweather sounds good, August I think not. Maybe we will leave Maggie home and come stay in one.

 A little more in my ongoing tribute to the CCC's

Built in 1930's but still nice place to sit and enjoy

We saw one very similar at AH Henry SP in Georgia

"Head West young man"

 I believe it was Horace Greely, a publisher in the 1800's, who made that statement to encourage westward settlement.  No plans to settle "out west" but will be departing soon on our westward journey. If you followed along last fall you will recall it was all about the "low country". The land of majestic live oaks, Spanish moss and sand beaches. This little sojourn will have none of that, except it will have sand. We anticipate being road warriors for about 7 weeks so somewhat shorter than last fall. Dang doctor's visits and prescription refills get in the way.

 It might be useful for you to research the difference between "national park" and "national monument". I have as I  was curious, I will let you do your own research. The reason being is that our travels will take us to 13 national parks/monuments. In order of visitation they are as follows: Grand Canyon, Vermillion Cliffs, Zion, Cedar Breaks, Bryce Canyon, Grand Staircase Escalante, Capitol Reef, Arches, Canyon Lands, Natural Bridges, Hovenweep, Canyon of the Ancients and last but not least Mesa Verde. To be sure time does not allow a complete and thorough examination of all the things to see and do. Consider it the Cliff notes tour if you will. We spent part of a day at the Grand Canyon some years ago, the rest will be all "new to us". Along the way we hope to show you some interesting sights that are not national parks/monuments.


 This picture courtesy of Google Earth will show our basic path.

 The numbers represent our planned (so far) overnight camping locations. Not real comfortable using the term "camping". Stopping, overnight stays, roughing it smoothly locations as Tiffin calls it probably more accurate, Departure planned for Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on prescription being filled and weather pattern approaching. Next entry later in week from somewhere down the road.