From one state park to the next...

We woke up at Caprock Canyons State Park, and went to sleep last night in Palo Duro Canyon State Park. Yes, making as much use of our Texas State Parks pass as possible.

We didn't have a cell signal at the campsite at Caprock Canyons, so we drove over to the interpretive building where they have free wifi. But as with most campgrounds, the public wifi is either not good to begin with, or if more than two or three people are using it, it's almost not usable. But, from that location I managed two bars of Verizon signal, so between the two managed to get the blog posted yesterday and some internet work done.

We got a nice site in the horse camping area at Caprock Canyons State Park

We were up at 6:00am yesterday morning and on the road at 7:00am in order to drive as much as we could without the wind, which was forecast to increase after 9:00am. And the forecast was pretty accurate in that regard. The winds did pick up, but at least it was a head wind... not great for gas mileage, but at least it was relatively comfortable to drive in.

At least until we got to the town of Turkey. After that, we had a minor problem.

Heat warning on Thursday, wind warning on Friday!

We had planned on leaving Paul's place at 9:00am in order to beat the worst of the winds, but for some reason we were a few minutes later than that. We knew the forecast was calling for wind, but it was supposed to be from the south so we were hoping for a tail wind.

Instead, it came from the west and we had a nasty cross wind that got worse as time went on.

Boondockers Welcome

Woke up yesterday morning after  a great sleep at Foster County Park, free camping for the night. Nice little park by the river, and quiet during the week, although I've read that it can get busy on the weekends.

One of the things we love about the transient RV lifestyle is opening the windows in the morning to see where we are! Yesterday morning, we had ducks and geese and turtles to see!

No logic at San Angelo State Park

We woke up to a beautiful sunrise at Menard County Park in our spot by the river. Didn't have to get an early start, so we puttered around on the free wifi and took our time getting ready to go.

But by the time we did leave, it was getting windy. We should have left earlier!

A perfect day

What a perfect day we had yesterday. Perfect weather, and a perfect campsite by the river. If we didn't have more exploring to do, we might have stayed even longer but we want to see San Angelo State Park today, and we have a booking with a Boondockers Welcome host tomorrow.

Spent most of the morning cleaning Sherman. Then after lunch, we took the kayak out on the river!

Yup, this will do for a couple of nights!

Knowing that it's still winter in Canada, we made a conscious decision to stay here in Texas as long as possible where the temperatures at this time of year are more suitable for human habitation.  If that means we have a few long driving days in the last week of the month, then that's the price we are willing to pay!

But, we still did some driving north yesterday.

March Expenses

Okay, have to post this mid day to get caught up. If you missed the earlier post, you can read it here...

http://www.travelwithkevinandruth.com/2018/04/not-thrilled-with-south-llano-river.html

We spent a total of $2,763 CAD ($2,200 USD) in the month of March. Yes, quite a lot higher than expected. Most of that was due to Sherman's breakdown, but we were also far higher in gasoline and toll road expenses than we would have preferred.

Not thrilled with South Llano River State Park

First thing in the morning, we drove over to the library in Junction, Texas to use their free unsecured wifi internet. I checked Verizon's coverage map... for some odd reason there is simply a huge gap in this area. Very strange.

But, at least we know it's not our device that's the problem.

Then, we did the short drive over to South Llano River State Park.

Very pleased with Junction, Texas

We weren't in a rush to leave Garner State Park, but we left our site at about 9:00am to drive through the park and down to the store where the laundromat is located. Haven't done any laundry since March 29th in Mazatlan.

That's also the last time we emptied our holding tanks, so it had been 8 days and we can normally go 10 if we're careful, so the grey tank was starting to get full. Probably could have gone another few days on the black tank though. Anyhow, we got the laundry done and emptied the tanks on our way out of the park.

Not that we would really mind if somebody stole them.

We rode our bikes over to the office again to pick up our windshield pass for our third night here. That was our morning exercise.

We then decided that we had better get some cleanup done to Sherman, so Ruth worked on the interior while I cleaned the bugs and grime off the front exterior. They were so plastered on that I had to use Greased Lightning spray cleaner to get them off. That, and some elbow grease.

Exploring Garner State Park

Woke up to a bit of an overcast day yesterday, and we didn't see any sun until late afternoon. But, it never did rain and the temperature was perfect to go out and get some exercise and explore the park.

Like I said yesterday, it's a big park so every time we go anywhere on the bikes, we know we're in for some exercise. That's okay, because we were kind of lacking in that department over the last three months and we need to get ourselves back in hiking condition because we're planning on doing lots of hiking and biking over the next six months!

We are liking Garner State Park!

Yesterday morning, we did the short drive from Uvalde to Garner State Park. Amazing how much the scenery changes when you get into Texas Hill Country. Of course it's called Hill Country for a reason... there are hills!

We wanted to arrive at Garner State Park early so that we could enjoy the day there. Plus, we had read that it's a big busy park, so we wanted to ensure a good site. In fact, Garner State Park is the most popular state park for overnight camping in all of Texas. Turns out we had nothing to worry about!

Knock, knock, knock... "It's the police..."

Got on the road early yesterday morning, and headed to the Carizzo Springs Walmart to do a big grocery shop and use their free wi-fi. But the Walmart in Carrizo Springs is just a basic Walmart store without much of a grocery section.

We did some internet and bought a refill card for our Verizon mi-fi so we can stay connected to you all for the next four weeks in the U.S..  Only bought a 5 GB package for $60 USD ($77 CAD) so we'll try and make that last. Still have some data remaining on our Telcel SIM card, and it's supposed to work in both the U.S. and Canada, so we'll see.

We are now into the United States!

But boy, they don't make it easy. Having been to 34 different countries, we have crossed a lot of borders. The United States makes things the most difficult.

And of course we have to put up with the border circus because it's part of travel. But sometimes it just makes you shake your head. Such as it was yesterday.