Throughout this Texas tour, we had been learning that picking a “new to us” destination can be a tricky business. Especially as campgrounds have become more crowded, options are fewer, and planning ahead becomes more and more important. Weather is a huge factor, although in a sense it is more “anticipated weather” when you are booking a month out (which generally had been working for us). Then there are less-quantifiable things like size and location of the park, things to do both within and nearby, cell and internet signal strength and even proximity to a town or city. A place that might be perfect for one person could be undesirable to another.
We had been getting better at identifying our preferences and finding campgrounds that worked best for us over the course of the trip. By this point, we knew we liked/wanted at least a little bit of connectivity, and a smaller town nearby, but not a big city. Bigger parks also generally offered more/better biking opportunities, and remote areas had quiet roads with less vehicle traffic. All that said, our decision to stay at Possum Kingdom State Park was made based more on availability than anything else. Granted, it was remote but with fair cell/internet, with lots of biking options and a huge lake that offered some fun exploration options. But the reality, when we went to book this stay back in February, was that literally every state park campground was full – unwittingly we were on a collision course with the tail end of SPRING BREAK. So we felt really grateful we had found a ‘water only’ spot at Possum Kingdom, one of the last ones available! We were hoping the promise of warmer, sunnier weather would materialize, as we would be depending on solar for our electricity (even without us using lights etc, the trailer itself consumes a fair amount of elecricity for its systems, day and night), and using propane for our heat. And we figured we could find things to entertain us for a week!
We arrived at Possum Kingdom after a full day’s drive, having crossed from southeast through to northcentral Texas, pretty much non-stop. We did make an impulse stop at the Gilbert Pecan Co which turned out to offer pecans in many forms and a lot more! Basically a candy/souvenier/convenience store with a heavy emphasis on local pecans. We did our best to support the local economy! It was pretty amazing to watch the landscape change throughout the day, from the somewhat desolate flat gulf coast plains to the central “prairies and lakes” area to the suburbs south and west of Dallas/Ft Worth and finally into the still hilly but wider-open spaces at the edge of the “panhandle plains” as we approached Possum Kingdom.
Funny about the name… the park is on Possum Kingdom Lake, a pretty huge man-made lake (20,000 surface acres) in the rugged canyon country of the Brazos River west of Dallas. Apparently the name came from a band of trappers in the area, from back in the 1800’s. They had such success with possum that they became known to traders as “the boys from Possum Kingdom”. Sounds like a pretty good reality TV show name! It was the inspiration for a song, “Possum Kingdom” from the 1990’s by a Dallas group called The Toadies , if that rings any bells with alt-music fans out there! The lake was the first reservoir on the Brazos and we thought it was pretty spectacular, with cliff-face walls in places and a huge amount of shoreline with a wide range of vacation and permanent houses along most of the perimeter. But more on that later! Suffice to say we arrived, it was warm and sunny, we set up camp and were happy!
Wednesday March 16 dawned warm so we had a perfect ‘in-camp day’ – wake up, warm up, explore on bike, shower, relax, dinner, read (only 5 tv channels, ALL religious!), bed! Thursday and Friday were largely enjoyable repeats of Wednesday, except we hiked some of the park trails and Mike actually got his old fishing pole out and tried his luck. He didn’t get any bites, mainly because the pole (from the 1970’s!) broke after a couple casts. Although in truth, we had yet to see any other fisherman (of which there was a large number, in this and other campgrounds/fishing areas we’d seen) get a bite. Working on a fishing pole repair kept him busy with his MacGuyver hat on, for awhile. We realized later that we had entirely missed St Patrick’s Day. Darn!
We didn’t find any cycling events for the weekend, so we planned our own adventure for Saturday, driving to the east side of the lake (we were on the west side) to try out the Possum Kingdom Bike and Hike Trail System, with a quick stop to check out a local feature called “Hell’s Gate” which once was a big trapping area where whites and Comanches regularly came to blows, and now was the home to the most upscale of the upscale residences surrounding the lake. Hell’s Gate turned out to be pretty spectacular!
The Possum Kingdom Bike and Hike trails, though advertised as “mostly intermediate” were definitely not for the faing of heart. We found them quite challenging on our hardtail bikes and we got in plenty of ‘hike a bike’ time, even while avoiding the sections indicated as challenging! Serious drop-offs (5 to 8 ft), lots of slide-prone shale sections and roots galore gave us more than enough adrenaline and we ended up doing the second half of our ride on the lightly-traveled paved roads surrounding the Trail area. Mike remarked afterward, “We know why they called it a Bike AND Hike Area – because you WILL be hiking, with or without bike!” We saw maybe 5 or 6 groups of hikers but not a single biker on the trails, and very few bike tire marks on the sandy surfaces. We DID see one guy in a pickup truck with a mtb, arriving just as we departed. Lightly used by mountain bikers! We felt pretty good about departing with all our skin intact. We rode for over 3 hours, and got in a plenty-good workout.
We actually looked for some kind of restaurant for an early dinner before we headed home, but disappointingly couldn’t find anything that got us excited – or really, any restaurant at all for that matter. So we settled for cold drinks from the local mini-mart and hustled home to get in showers before it got chilly. We did make a quick photo stop at the Stone Arch Bridge, one of FDR’s WPA projects and at 433 ft with 18 arches, the longest stone arch bridge in Texas. The project brought unemployed coal miners in to the area for the two year project, starting in 1940, utilizing their expertise in handling and cutting stone. The craftmanship was pretty amazing. All in all, a full day!
We had planned to do an out-and-back road ride around the west end of the lake on Sunday, but the wind picked up on Saturday evening and did not slow down. We got out as early as was feasible (chilly mornings!) and managed to do a couple hours of riding before the wind really kicked in. We got far enough to see the lake in the distance from the tops of the medium-sized rollers on the north side of the lake and decided it would be a good idea to turn back before it got any windier. And were we glad we did! The wind continued to pick up intensity as we got back to the campground and throughout the afternoon. The sun was gone, and we couldn’t help but notice the steady stream of campers packing up and leaving as evening approached. Only later did we hear about tornado warnings to the east of Dallas!
Monday March 21 was forecast to be cold and wet, so we had planned for our weekly ‘chores’ day – laundry, propane fill, drinking water fill, gas tank fill, grocery store. We got all that done in the small down of Breckenridge TX (pop 6000), and still had some time for some library internet. At about 30 miles west of us, it was the closest place with actual stores! Breckenridge, the self-proclaimed Mural Capitol of TX, was clearly a working town. We could really see the transition to “panhandle” – country places were clearly ‘ranch’, not farm, and oil well drilling, equipment and stores was everywhere we turned (there were even oil rigs pumping right in town! There were other indicators too – virtually no import beer in the grocery store, just Bud and more Bud. The roads in the town were bone-jarringly bad, and the housing tended toward the run-down.
We had thought the rain had ended as we arrived in Breckenridge, but while we were in the library, another front came through, and this one was the Real Deal. It rained so hard that we could not see the buildings across the street! Black sky, howling winds, flooded streets – it was something! The librarians were all on alert to evacuate (tornado concerns) as we blythely went on with what we were doing and watching the storm. Little did we know! The storm ended as abruptly as it had arrived, and we waited around for about 30 more minutes for the water to drain off the roads a bit. Even then, quite a few intersections were still flooded, and there was water-swept debris littering streets and sidewalks everywhere. WOW!
On our way out of town, we happened upon a little hole in the wall barbeque joint, Pitstop BBQ . A quick google search showed good reviews, so we did a u-turn and stopped in for take-out dinner. We realized we hadn’t eaten out in about 3 weeks! When we pulled into the parking lot, we were greeted with the great smell of smoky fire and knew we had made a good call. 10 minutes later we were on our way home, with a to-go bag full of beef, sausage and chicken as well as our favorite sides: cole slaw and sweet potato fries for Janine, and Mike got baked beans and cole slaw.
When we got back to our trailer, it was still/again grey and windy. The campground was almost completely cleared out! It was cold enough in our trailer that we got out the generator (good to use it once a month anyway…), ran the furnace (it takes electricity too!) and quickly put away the groceries and clean laundry before diving into our BBQ dinner that was both delicious and huge! We easily had enough for two dinners, so we found room in the overcrowded refrigerator and saved half for Tuesday. We spent the last of the afternoon doing a few preliminary “Pack Up” chores so that we could make a fast get-away on Tuesday – we had a 6 or 7 hour drive in front of us, and a forecast of winds increasing as the day went on. So we wanted to hit the ground running! We also caught this little guy running through the campground!
Tuesday morning was cold, damp and grey, and the forecast was worsening both at Possum Kingdom and at Atlanta State Park, our destination. So we didn’t waste any time, and we were chilly but on the road at 9am, heading for Texarkana! The drive went smoothly, with only one stop for gas. The stars aligned for us to finally visit yet another Texas Tradition: A Buc-ee’s! What’s a Buc-ee’s, you ask? Well… they do sell gasoline! But that’s just the beginning. You’d really have to see one to believe it. We had avoided/hesitated to stop at one because they are just SO massive, it seemed like it would be an absolute cluster-you-know-what to get in and out, especially pulling a trailer. But this one time, we decided to go for it.
Though it WAS a gas station, we quickly grasped that Buc-ee’s are SO much more! By our count, at this one, there were *96* operational gas pumps. And Buck-ees is specifically NOT a truck stop, it’s just for cars. And the ‘mini-mart’ portion of it was really a MAXI-mart! Some of the things you could get, beyond the usual coffee, soda, chip and candy bars (of which there were AISLES and AISLES!): bakery counter with fresh-baked goods, deli pumping out sloppy joe and beef brisket sandwiches before our astounded eyes, on-site fudge-making, nut-roasting (including cinnamon coated, praline, chocolate covered and more…), yard art, gift shop, and the legendary Beef Jerky bar (a cool $29.99/lb!). Almost every product sold was Buc-ee branded – or if there was a national brand, there was also a Buc-ee’s brand. And the restrooms! Huge! Immaculate! There were probably 50 employees on duty in the whole operation. We were in awe. Virtually no waiting, at the pump, restroom, or cashier. Spacious and clean. And, the jerky bar notwithstanding, overall, prices were totally reasonable! Quite an experience. We were reluctant to go to one, thinking it would be a tourist trap and too crowded for the truck and trailer combo. But having been to one, we were SOLD! We would definitely pick a Buc-ee’s over a Pilot, Love’s or Flying J. In fact we regularly found ourselves hoping for one! Between Buc-ee’s, HEB supermarkets and Whataburger, Texas definitely knows how to do big retail!
From there it was just an hour or so of driving to get to Atlanta State Park. We were inadvertently racing against the storm which was sometimes in front of us, sometimes behind us but seemingly increasing in intensity as we approached our destination. We arrived at the Atlanta park HQ to learn that the storm was aftermath of the newsmaking tornadoes which had touched down around the area, including a few that were less than 10 miles from us! Yikes! More on that in our next post!