Lake Whitney, Texas

Yesterday morning, we took Whiskey to the vet. Found a guy in Glen Rose who opened at 9:00am and so we drove over there then. Turned out he wasn’t in until 10:00am, but the receptionist said we could come back then.

Because our concern was with Whiskey’s bladder and leakage, they need a urine sample in order to test for an infection. So here’s us, following closely behind Whiskey with a soup ladle, trying to slide the thing under her every time she stops for a sniff. It was really kind of comical, although I’m sure it annoyed her a little bit. Couldn’t get enough, so had a chat with the vet, and decided to head off to the State Park and return later with the sample.
Dinosaur Valley State Park is only about 5 miles from the town of Glen Rose. We paid the $5 each entrance fee and parked at the first site to walk down to the riverbed to look at the footprints.

At the next stop, they showed a nice hiking trail on the other side of the river. Used the stones on the river bed to cross, and then it was about a 3 mile hike on the other side. It was an interesting trail, one part following the riverside, and the other part hiking up to a lookout. Whiskey sure seems to enjoy going for a nice hike.

Sherman, seen from the lookout

How does this rock not fall down...?

Had enough sample now to head back and drop it off at the vets. They did the tests right away for us, and it turns out that there is no infection. This means that the leakage is either caused by the bladder stone operation they did two months ago, or is simply coincidental because it is such a common problem for older spayed female dogs. There is a hormone drug they give for this, and so they have given Whiskey a prescription to see if it fixes the problem. If it does, she will likely have to take it for the rest of her days.

By this time, it was about 3:00pm and although we could have gone and parked beside the Comfort Inn for the night, we really wanted somewhere nicer. I got online again and found that there are five or six camping areas at the United States Army Core of Engineers parks on Lake Whitney about 35 miles away. The USACE parks are on lakes that were created by dams, and some of them can be very reasonably priced. It said on their website that two of the parks on the lake are “first come, first served” and they are FREE. We like free camping!

So we headed to Steel Creek Park on Lake Whitney. The drive was really nice, taking the backroads through ranch country. Arrived there and saw the park host trailer on the way in, then one other campsite taken. We parked in a perfect site, with a fantastic view of the lake. Did I mention this is free? What a nice spot. There is another free camp on the opposite side, so maybe we’ll head over there for tonight.

Sherman, boondocking at Steel Creek Park

Yesterday's drive, 32 miles (55 kms)