Our stay at Fairfield Lake State Park had an inauspicious start, but it ended up being one of our favorite places so far. We were excited to get to Fairfield Lake, because it promised a more remote location, with backroads suitable for bicycling and even a lake for Mike to try fishing. We were SO excited, in fact, that we packed up and headed out from Goliad with a good early start, only to realize, about an hour and a half into our drive, that we completely forgot to go to the Goliad Post Office to pick up a package we had sent to us at General Delivery. Note to the curious, this really does work, we’ve done it a couple times now, without any problems! Except for the fact we needed to go back and get it, as it contained Janine’s thyroid medication as well as a bunch of our tax info!!! So that was a setback, for sure. We turned around, got the package, and were AGAIN on our way from Goliad, but now it was getting close to 2pm. So we knew we’d be dealing with night-time arrival, never a first choice, but sometimes things just don’t go to the plan.
We did have one humorous moment about half-way to Fairfield Lake (the second time…), when we both started having that strange sensation of familiarity… had we been here before? In fact, we had! When we drove from Austin to Sam Houston, just two weeks before, we were forced to take a detour due to a fire-related road closure. That detour route overlapped our present route for about 5 miles! Texas IS big, but it was getting familiar!
We got into the town of Fairfield right as dusk turned to dark, and carefully navigated about 12 miles of increasingly smaller and seemingly darker roads to the park entrance. We were greeted at the park entrance by a small herd of deer wandering across the road – no harm, no foul! We finally made it down 3 or 4 miles of narrow twisting road to the campground entrance and finally to our site. On arrival at the campground, we noticed right away that the sites were only about half occupied, which was encouraging, as we like it on the quiet side… AND there would be less of an audience while we attempted to park our rig in the dark!
Arriving in the dark is considered a bit of a ‘rookie move’ in the RV world. Particularly in a back-in site (as opposed to a pull-through), and towing a trailer (vs. an RV) it is very tricky to see where your trailer is going in the dark. Also it is harder to see any tree limbs or branches, stumps and other obstacles. And you’re basically guessing at where you are going to want to have your front door, relative to the pavement, the picnic table etc. For added pressure, since everyone knows the challenge, you know that everyone in the vicinity is watching to see how well you handle it. No pressure! We are pretty good about planning to ensure arrival in daylight generally, but sometimes it’s going to happen. And this was our turn.
Naturally, this site would turn out to be one of the trickier ones to get into, a narrow pad, some low-ish tree branches overhead on the door side, and some stumps nearby on the slide side. So we couldn’t get too close to the edge on that side, but we needed enough pad space on on the door side to be able to set down the stairs on the pad (the ground dropped off pretty dramatically there). This would have been a challenge even in daylight. A friendly camp host came out to offer additional lighting to help us back in, and with Janine holding some flashlights, after a few attempts we got into the space available, and everything seemed to fit. We could extend the slide, and we could set down the stairs and close the door. Whew. While helping Mike navigate, Janine actually saw her first Armadillo, snuffling around in the nearby leaves, up close and personal! We got in and got settled, had a bite to eat, and began to wind down from the day. What a day!
In spite of another 32 degree night, we were excited to wake up on Wednesday, March 2, and see where we actually were. That might be the only fun thing about arriving in the dark – a bit like Christmas morning, waking up to see what you got! We got a great campsite, near the water but not right on top of it. Since the park HQ was closed when we arrived, we needed to drive back out at 9AM (WAY TOO COLD and a bit too foggy to bike ride!) to the gate to formally check-in and get our receipt to put in our windshield. The park rangers were fun and helpful with lots of suggestions for how to spend our week. We got outside for a bike ride after it warmed up, and found we were close to trails and had plenty of paved roads for our road bikes. We were stoked! Showers, some relaxing time and dinner, and that was our Wednesday. Riding around the campground, we were curious to notice that virtually every campsite had a Reserved sign, but almost all were empty! Perhaps it was the poor weather forecast…
But Thursday turned out sunny and even more lovely than Wednesday. We were up and out early to explore more of the area. We took our road bikes out on a loop which was awesome except for about 4 miles on one road which was a crazy truck-filled super-speedway with zero shoulder. Were we ever glad to turn off of THAT! On our ride back into the campground, Mike saw HIS first Armadillo, taking a little bath in a culvert beside the road. They are some cute little devils! We still wanted to see them roll up into a ball, though. As the afternoon lengthened, we could feel the clouds setting in and the temperature dropping, right on schedule. We hunkered down for another night with the heaters on!
Friday dawned cold and wet at 38 degrees with drizzle. It was another Indoor Day. We lounged around for the morning, then did some yoga and stretching before heading out at around noon to check out the Fairfield Library. It turned out to be pretty great, with good internet, spacious and comfortable, and they even gave us free Keurig coffee! What a score! We hung out there for 3 or 4 hours. Did we mention how much we love the Library!?!?
Eventually we headed back “home”, and Janine decided to warm up by going for a quick run on the 2-mile Nature Trail just outside our campground. She got quite a surprise when she went around a corner and startled a huge wild boar! It was so big that at first she thought it was someone’s Newfundland dog running loose. But as it snorted and ran away, she realized that a) it was a boar, b) it was huge, and c) she was all alone with it out there in all that nature. That definitely added a new sense of adventure to the run! She made it back safe and was warm enough to brave the walk to and from the restrooms for a shower. Just making more memories!
Saturday morning was COLD, we saw a low of 22 on the thermometer. But it got up to 55 degrees and the sun came out, so we braved the elements for a nice afternoon mountain bike ride where we tested out all the 5 or so miles of trail in the park. Some was super-easy, a lot was swoopy and fun (with a LOT of tree roots/ruts) and some was so rocky it felt like we were back in Bidwell Park! The campground was still less than 1/4 occupied and we felt like we practically had the place to ourselves.
Sunday we woke up to a delightful 45 degree morning and the day just got better. We were a bit tired and sore from our new daily workouts as well as riding, hiking and running, but we eked out a pretty flat, very windy morning road ride. In the afternoon, we enjoyed just sitting around as the temperature hit around 70! We watched as the campground began to fill up around us… and realized… it was Spring Break week! No wonder all the sites had been reserved! Once it warmed up, the campground was getting swarmed!
Monday started warm, at about 55 degrees. It was our last day at Fairfield Lake (how can a week go by so quickly??) so we saddled up our mountain bikes for one last easy ride around the park, including a fun visit to the Chancellor Union Cemetery, which dates back to the 1850’s. Wandering around the cemetery, it was hard not to notice the stark contrast between the sometimes ridiculously elaborate headstones for whites and the brick-sized stones engraved UNK that designated the slaves’ burial sites. We read that slaves were not permitted to have names on their headstones. So dehumanizing. We had learned during our stay at Goliad, in the Civil War, Texas (and especially east Texas, where there was enough water to grow cotton) came down firmly on the confederate side of the battle. But seeing that cemetary really let us feel the indignity of slavery even into the grave.
We finished up our ride under increasingly gloomy skies and started packing up our bikes and outdoor furniture amidst the grumbling of thunder. We noticed that lots of people were outdoors and went out for one last walk around our campground loop to admire the lighning show. We were about half-way around the camping loop when the rain began to fall, and quickly became a torrent. We raced back to the trailer wet and laughing, and enjoyed our last night at Fairfield Lake indoors. We had really enjoyed a week of pretty decent weather with only one cold day. While there, we had each spotted our first armadillos (so cute!), Janine encountered a huge wild pig and we had seen numerous deer, some cardinals and a couple flocks (or rafters!) of wild turkey. We thought it was one of the nicest campgrounds we’ve been at, and we definitely would go back – but maybe not during spring break!
Tuesday morning we were up early for what was becoming the usual cleaning, organizing and packing before hitching up and hitting the dump station on our way out. We had things down to a routine of about 90 minutes to be ready to leave the campsite, and another 20-30 minutes to get to the dump station, dump and rinse the tanks and add the necessary tank treatments. It seems like moving to a new site shouldn’t take all day, but when you add in 2 hours of prep before departure, then a 3 to 6 hour drive, and a solid hour on arrival, you’re talking about a full day, no matter how you slice it. We’re learning! Next stop: Possum Kingdom State Park!