Home on the range... for the next week or more...

A few years ago while in Mexico, we met our friend Tracy. She was living in Puerto Escondido at the time, and we spent quite a bit of time together. We met her and her mother Joy when we got together in Puerto Vallarta a couple of years later.

Tracy had mentioned at some point that her family owns a ranch near Amarillo, and that we would be welcome to park there if we were ever headed that way. Yesterday, we took them up on that offer!

Sherman's repairs are complete!

You haven't heard from us for a couple of days because there hasn't been much to say. We had been parked up for three days and two nights in the mechanical garage parking lot. Well, we were actually parked inside the garage during the day... and outside at night.

Once again, S&L Auto Repairs in Amarillo looked after us well. Head mechanic Ismail did the repairs along with his assistant Isaac. The bill was not cheap, but it was about what I expected.

Stuck in Amarillo

But not for long.

We had some major repair work done at S&L Auto Repair here in Amarillo exactly two years ago. We were happy with the work and the guys who did it, so we purposely took a little bit of a detour to return here and have some more things looked at.

Since the last work was completed, we have done more than 20,000 miles of driving, some of it on very rough roads. Sherman has actually held up quite well, all things considered!

Airport camping

We said goodbye to Guthrie, Texas and headed further north. Not much to stop and see along the way in this part of Texas, but it's still interesting nonetheless.

This time, we had a pretty strong headwind... good thing, because it would make more room in the tank for some upcoming cheap gasoline! Ha... there is a bright side to everything!

A visit from the local Sheriff...

Had a quiet Friday night in Hamlin's sports park. We planned to set off at around 10:00am, and before we did so I checked the pressure in that one tire that we had repaired a few days ago. To my surprise it was zero. Yes, a big fat ZERO!

Bob came over to give me a hand and brought his bigger compressor. We figured we might be able to hear where it's leaking if we put some air in it. But as we took the wheel cover off, we quickly realized where it was coming from.

Lots of free overnight spots in Texas

Our original plan was to overnight in quite a few of the Texas State Parks, but since they closed we have had no problem finding good free overnight spots.

Oh, and speaking of Texas State Parks, they are re-opening their day use areas as of Monday! Great news for those of us who like to get some exercise and fresh air.

Fortunately, this kind of thing doesn't happen very often

Went for a 5.5 mile (9 km) power walk before leaving Santa Anna, Texas. Not the most scenic area, so didn't take any photos. But at least we got some exercise in.

We woke up to a strong south wind that was forecast to get stronger as the day went on. We don't normally like driving Sherman on a windy day, but when it's a tailwind, we will take the extra gas mileage!

Good guys at Flores Tire and Auto in Brady, Texas!

We continued slowly north today. We stopped in at Lake Brady Park just west of Brady, Texas but there weren't a lot of areas to walk so it didn't look like a suitable place for us to overnight. While we were there, I checked Sherman's tire pressures.

The left rear inner tire has had a slow leak ever since we plugged it four months ago in Mexico. I've been keeping an eye on it, and I've had to top it up once a week or so. But lately, the slow leak has become a fast leak!

Heading further north

It seems the worst of the cold weather front is over as of today, so we are slowly heading further north.

Yesterday, we walked around the town of Llano (pop 3,200). Nice little place. Then, we drove up towards Brady (pop 5,300) and found a nice little highway rest area for the night.

A beautiful Texas scenic drive...

We took the bikes out for another ride yesterday morning before we left the beautiful Stonewall area. It was a bit cool... I even had my winter hat and gloves on! But it turned out to be a beautiful blue sky day with a high of about 62F (16C).

We went out for an hour and did 9 miles (14.5 kms), but that including stopping along the way to take a couple of photos.

We needed to switch things up a little bit

We've probably power walked 60 miles (100 kms) in the last ten days. And while that's good for the aerobics, it's also good to get some different types of exercise. Yesterday, we got the bikes off. We needed to switch things up a little bit, and there are lots of places to bike around here.

This is such a beautiful area of Texas. And there are so many back roads that have hardly any traffic on them.

Snake! In a split second I backed away.

We went out for our daily 6 mile (10 km) power walk yesterday morning. Despite the fact that the state and national parks are closed, there are still a lot of places to walk in this area.

We are right beside the Lyndon B. Johnson State Park and Historic Site, and on the other side of the river is the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Site.

Luxury Riverside Boondocking

With most public facilities closed, we are left to find places to overnight on our own. We're pretty good at that, but we also use the iOverlander app to get some ideas. It tends to list a lot of Walmarts and private RV parks and they are definitely a last resort for us, so we have to filter through the listings quite a bit.

But occasionally we come across something worthwhile. In this case, the listing was titled "Luxury Riverside Boondocking". So we drove over there yesterday.

Our pet butterfly

We always make an effort to get out for some exercise. Every day. It's at least a 4 mile hike of some kind and that's the minimum. In fact the last few days have probably averaged 6 miles (10 kms) per day.

And of course the terrain makes a difference. Some places we are trekking through the brush, and other places we are power walking on a paved pathway.

We do have a plan...

Yesterday morning we received notification by email that Texas State Parks were all being closed to the public by 5:00pm that day.

We went out for our morning hike and discussed what that meant for us. We had planned on using some of the Texas State Parks while making our way north. The only time it looked like it was going to be a problem was the upcoming Easter long weekend.