Lake Brownwood day 2

It was super foggy this morning. I will try to put a picture of it with this post but our cellphone issues have not improved. We drove into Brownwood and are sitting in the parking lot of a Walmart and we are roaming. It looks like Verizon has completely overlooked Brownwood. We found out that our next scheduled stop is closed, so we are in the process of jumping through some hoops. We should be out of here tomorrow but we don't yet have a destination. Kinda like "Lost in Space" except we are in North Texas.

Lake Brownwood State Park

This is another cell phone dead zone. We think the issue is with Verizon. Anyway,  that's irrelevant. The drive here was foggy. We are here for 2 nights we think. I say, we think, because our next stop is either closed or not. The website says the park is closed until March 3rd due to no water, when you call their number, the recorded message says they are up and running. We will, as Jamie says, "play it by year".

Lost Maples day 3

We did another 6 miler today. An out and back. Our goal was a spring that was marked on the map. (See pics) Nothing much else going on. We leave here tomorrow for Lake Brownwood State Park. Hopefully we will some connectivity there.

Lost Maples day 2

We are at the park's Ranger Station. They have public wifi that may or may not work. We did a 6 mile hike today up and around the park. The Sabinal river flows through the park. Any where else it would be called a creek but, this being Texas, it's a river. Anyway it is very pretty water, filtered through limestone. There is absolutely no cell service here. I was told we would have to drive 45 minutes to get any service. I'm going to push send and hope for the best.

Cell phone dead zone

Today is Wednesday the 24th. Jenny and I will be leaving our campsite in Larson's driveway in a few hours. We will be camping in Lost Maples State Natural Area until the 27th. The campground is in a Valley and there is no cell service. I know that because we have been there twice before. The ranger station supposedly has wifi so maybe we can get something there. The park is near Vanderpool. We will be back online on the 27th 

A visit with Spoon

Had a good visit with Alan and Donna. They had a couple of unpleasant days during the arctic cold snap but no broken pipes and a minimum of plant fatalities. While I was there we took Spoon for a walk in a nearby park. These pics were taken there 

97 down

The party was a great success. It was held at Jerome and Jean's daughter's house. No presents were exchanged but there was wine and cake. We are here until Wednesday. The storm's aftermath is still being felt in places and businesses around the city but normal should be making an appearance soon.

Larson's driveway

We made it with no problems. Stopped twice to fill up in the first 200 miles because we were not sure about the availability of gas around Houston and San Antonio. Turned out not to be an issue. The pic is of everyone currently staying at Larson's house. The party is tomorrow. 

Lafayette KOA

Texas is,  right now, experiencing a Pandemic, a widespread blackout, an ice/snow storm, record low temperatures, gasoline shortages and a boil water advisory. That is where we are headed. We decided that we should maybe wait until tomorrow until we drove into that mess. Our scheduled stop was a State Park near Port Arthur. That park's water supply was off as is the water supply of Port Arthur. We have filled up the MP's fresh tank and several water containers because Larson is having to boil his water. The temps should be above freezing tomorrow afternoon and all of our route is interstate so we're thinking if we can find some gas we should make it into San Antonio. The cold will persist for awhile. This is the exact opposite of a snowbird trip.

Paul B. Johnson SP Hattiesburg Ms

Today was a pretty long drive. We did 350 miles. There is supposed to be another area of bad weather that should roll over us tonight. We are hoping that will be it. This place has a lake. We had to drive over the spillway to get to the campground. Not much happened that was blogworthery today. We did a quick stop at a Bass Pro Shop to pick up some propane bottles and also at a Dollar General to get some salt and pepper. We forgot to bring any. Should be in Texas tomorrow. 

Kolomoki Mounds

We did the Mounds today. After the front blew through the temperature started to drop. We sort of dragged our feet this morning before we headed out hoping things would warm up. Nope. We got bundled up and headed out. There are 8 mounds. Most of them are pretty small lumps that don't really look unnatural. There is one called the "Temple Mound". That one is enormous. 56 feet high by 325 feet by 200 feet. It would have taken over 2 million basket loads of dirt, each holding one cubic foot of dirt, to build that mound. Some of the smaller mounds were burial sites. They think the big one was ceremonial. All of this started about 1000 years ago and lasted for 700 years. You will notice that the big mound has recently been burned off. They have to do that or it would soon become overgrown. We move tomorrow. Should be in Mississippi. 

Kolomoki Mounds SP Ga

The attraction here are Indian mounds. One of them is big. I will have more info on them tomorrow. We couldn't really do much after we got here because we were/are under a severe thunderstorm warning. It just got downgraded from a tornado warning. It is raining hard at the moment. We are here for 2 nights and, so far, have been unable to make or receive phone calls. We can text. I will be somewhat surprised if this post goes out and I'll be amazed if I can include a pic.

Little Ocmulgee SP Ga.

 This is the first stop on our winter trip. The plan is to be in San Antonio for Larson's 97th birthday on the 22nd. We are headed into what appears to be some extremely ugly weather. Record cold, snow and ice are happening right now in Texas. We are staying pretty far south but the next few days will be iffy for most of Texas. It will take us a few days to get there so we are hoping things will thaw out before we arrive.