Jun 7 2014

Clayton Lake State Park in Clayton, NM

Clayton Lake State Park is a state park of New Mexico, United States, featuring a 170-acre (69 ha) recreational reservoir and a fossil trackway of dinosaur footprints. It is located 15 miles (24 km) north of Clayton, close to New Mexico’s border with Colorado, Oklahoma, and Texas. The landscape is characterized by rolling grasslands, volcanic rocks, and sandstone bluffs, set on the western edge of the Great Plains. The park area was a stopover point for travelers along the Cimarron Cutoff of the Santa Fe Trail. (Wikipedia)

The sites along the way were pretty much the same as the day before.

Roux just chill’n, wondering why we’re going so slow.

These massive windy energy harvesters (LOL, patent pending on that name) are everywhere here, it’s very smart since it is freakishly windy.

And suddenly the horizon began to change…

UGH, HUMANS!

And then there was a 15 mile stretch of highway off the interstate that had me thinking “man, I hope this isn’t the wrong way!”

The temperature was mild with no humidity when we arrived. There was nobody in the visitors center and there was no place for camper check-ins. Thankfully I had the reservation site # and there were only 7 sites that we could see anyway, so it wasn’t hard to find our spot.

Our site had a terrific view of the lake. The lake is surrounded by rock cliffs and has a rocky bottom. There were a few people fishing, they said they had caught several trout. Unfortunately for Jacob you need a New Mexico fishing license.

After settling in, we headed off on a hike to see dinosaur tracks which are located on the opposite side of the lake from the camp sites. There are tracks from a variety of dinosaurs, tail marks, and fossilized mud cracks and tidal ripples. We saw beautiful plants, rabbits, deer, and tumble weeds.

We had the whole place to ourself. Wouldn’t ya know right as we were leaving a herd of geology students were head our way. We were so happy to have been able to view the tracks alone.
Jacob unfortunately had an encounter with a pretty vicious flower. It got him good!

The view from our camper was truly spectacular.

The next morning was humid with thick cloud cover, looked like rain was coming in soon. We were up and out of there early and on our way to Colorado.

Jun 6 2014

Lake Arrowhead State Park

On the drive we stopped at a gas station that Mrs. Judy would appreciate. You can order Sonic while pumping gas! There was also an outrageous array of candy to satisfy the child in anyone! Most of the drive was flat farmlands of mostly wheat and tons of nodding donkeys.

Some of the sites along the way…

As we got closer to the state park, we began to see a change in the landscape. There were so many trees that looked like they were burnt and there was cacti everywhere. I don’t know why I don’t have a picture of all the burnt trees…must not have thought it was picture worthy?!?

Oooweee it was hot here! 103 at 3 p.m. and the ground was hot hot, Roux was high stepp’n! Don’t worry I always touch the ground before letting him walk, I don’t let him walk on anything too hot, I’m a good mommie! They had record high temperature, lucky for us?!? Thank heavens we got our air conditioner fixed. It was so windy, hot-wind, like a desert without sand dunes. Jacob kept saying, “It feels like hot breath,” a phrase that disgusts me. There were 3 other travel trailers parked here, but we didn’t see 1 person.

This poor place is in desperate need of a good rain. The lake is extremely low, everything is so dry, and there’s a no burn notice. Too bad we couldn’t bring some of that Louisiana Monsoon we left back home.
This park would be pretty cool under better circumstances. The lake is huge, great for boating and fishing and there’s a beach for swimming.

Another really cool thing is a Prairie Dog Town…..it’s like the show Meerkat Manor….they are SO CUTE!

We drove into the town of Wichita Falls to see the falls and to get some groceries.
The falls can be seen off the interstate, but to get a closer view it is about a half a mile walk in Lucy Park. The walk is completely paved and mostly shaded. The water is really low here too, somebody needs to do a rain dance! The water fall is man-made but it was still a nice walk after driving all day.

Back at the camper, we had an absolutely scrumptious diner of chicken tacos. Jacob grilled some chicken breast on the Green Egg before we left. I sautéed a sweet onion and toasted corn tortillas. It was better than a restaurant, YUM YUM!

We left the next morning for Clayton, NM. I took a few more pictures on the way out of the park.

Jun 4 2014

Miss Ellies RV Park, Waskom, TX

We arrived in Waskom, TX at 9 p.m. The campground we chose was right off the interstate, very convenient for a one night stay. The sites were full hook-up, which was also very convenient since we hadn’t dumped in Tickfaw.

When Jacob told me not dumping in Tickfaw was his plan, I told him about the time my family went camping with 2 other families. It was a far trip and since we all live close to one another we traveled caravan style with talkie-talkies. My dad is known to drive slow, 60 mph no matter what (you get better mpg, ain’t nothin’wrong wit dat!), so he was in the middle so that he wouldn’t get left behind. Somewhere along the way an eighteen-wheeler blew out a tire. The first truck swerved out of the way but our camper hit a piece of the tire. Immediately after we hear, “hey, what the hell, there’s blue all over our windshield!” There were some obscenities and what not, haha you’d have to know him…doesn’t finish a sentence without a curse word! LOL, oh good times! Anyway, the tire busted our sewer tank and the blue stuff was the chemicals you put in it to reduce the smell (blah) and keep it clean.
All I was thinking the 5.5 hour drive to Waskom was it wouldn’t just be blue chemical!
Jacob said, “It’ll be alright” in his cajun drawl. And it was.

On the way we stopped at Cracker Barrel for dinner. It was either that, McDonalds, or Burger King. I am always disappointed in the food here, it is consistently disgusting, yet I always give them the benefit of my doubt….stupid girl! I love everything inside the store though and it smells lovely in there! It gives me delusions of great expectations, I suppose. So this is where the experience took a turn….I ordered steak, what?!? Yeah, a freaking steak at Cracker Barrel! What’s wrong with me! Well, what happened was…we sat in the middle of 2 seperate tables both of which were eating steak with a baked potato and side salad that looked delicious. You know when you’re hungry, or hangry, and you see something yummy and the voice inside of you says, “GIVE IT TOO ME, SEYMORE!” Well that’s what happened and looks are very deceiving! I’m pretty sure it was microwaved, is that legal? AND to top it off they ran out of baked potatoes! At 6 pm, really? The side house salad was very good. (you should always say something nice to balance out the negative)
Why didn’t I just order something simple like chicken-n-dumplings? We should have gone to McDonalds, a phrase that never comes out of my mouth! We’ll make a ham sammich before we stop at Cracker Barrel next time.

Now we’re driving to our next 1 night stop, Lake Arrowhead State Park in Wichita Falls, TX while listening to A Game of Thrones.

Allons Danser Blog

Our Adventures…

Clayton Lake State Park in Clayton, NM

Lake Arrowhead State Park

Miss Ellies RV Park, Waskom, TX