Truckin' Across Texas

The journey is the experience. But getting there is part of the fun!  Welcome to our Truckin' Tales From Texas to the Arctic!

We started planning and thinking about doing one more trip to Alaska. Were we going to be comfortable in driving our Solitude 5th wheel all the way?  Not really. So we started looking at buying a truck camper. Then we discovered that to our dismay, our current one ton truck didn't have the payload for what we felt like we wanted in a truck camper. So about once a week I would do searches looking for the perfect used camper and we came upon someone selling their one ton dually and camper - which was the model we were really interested in - a Lance 1172. We made a road trip to Midland, TX to put our eyeballs on it.  It was perfect. The man that had it had added a LOT of things (2 lithium batteries, solar, beefed up the truck suspension). We struck a deal. 

We're leaving early for a number of reasons. The main one is we haven't been to Death Valley National Park. We're in hopes of seeing a super bloom, but from what I have been reading, they are just having a real good bloom. Our Truckin' Tales From Texas to the Arctic has us traveling through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Vancouver, British Columbia, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Alaska, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and back home.

Day 1 – March 24 – Palm Sunday

Away we go!

The day has come.  After what seems like a million steps, we have the camper loaded and are ready to launch on our adventure!  Our destination today was Blanco State Park, Blanco Texas.  We haven’t been here in 20 or more years.  We had a nice spot, took a nice walk along the river and then….the reason we came here was to go hear our favorite band – The Lost Sounds of a Texas HonkyTonk in Johnson City.  We had a nice dinner, reconnected with old friends from this area, and got to listen to stories from Little Larry, Johnny Bush’s drummer when he was on the RCA label.  Quite entertaining!  We were happy to see that Kenny, the fiddle and guitar player, was back. He played with the likes of Jerry Reed and Johnny Rodriguez, just to name a few.  This band is so talented! We enjoyed dancing!  Might be our last time for quite a while!!

The Blanco River

Our favorite Texas hill country band - The Lost Sounds of a Texas Honky Tonk

Day 2 – South Llano River State Park, Texas

It was a short drive over, but we took the back road so we could enjoy all of the Texas wildflowers.  They came early this year!!!! Just beautiful. This is an amazing park and it’s full tonight with lots of folks from out of state. We got the bikes out and did about 5 miles on them.  I then took about a 1.5 mile hike up to the overlook. The weather is windy and cool. We enjoyed our campfire.

Red poppies and bluebonnets, the state flower of Texas

The Llano River with fields of purple verbena

The Llano River

Llano State Park in Texas

Day 3 and 4 – Turkey and Caprock Canyons, Texas

Bob Wills Museum – don’t blink as you might miss it, or think the address isn’t right, but it really is in the City Hall.  Bob Wills is the King of Country Swing and the museum does a great job at explaining that. In the early 1920’s his parents, John and Emma Wills moved their family to 600 acres between the Big Red and Little Red Rivers.  The family was known for their musical abilities. Son Bob was known especially for his fiddling, horsemanship and barbering skills. He also starred in many western movies,

Bob Wills

Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys. Those twin fiddles!

Historical Phillips 66 gas station in town

We had a great campsite at the state park. Our site was equipped with an official bison scratching post as well as a big ole pile of poop! We got the bikes out and rode about 7 miles. We didn’t do the road that has a 16% grade. The bison and their poop is everywhere so you have to look out for it when you’re on the trail. There’s one bison that likes to visit the campground. The prairie dogs were cute to watch but I can sure see how they can be a pest to those who live here. The weather has been really windy and on the cold side. Caprock Canyons State Park is still one of our favorite state parks.

Bison poop at almost every camp site!

Scratching post. Check out the hair!

Beautiful canyon colors

Lake Theo - pretty low but our neighbors caught some good fish!

Had to turn around on this trail.

Checking me out.

Flyover

Comical prairie dogs

Cute baby!

 Day 5 – Palo Duro Canyon State Park, Texas

It was a little on the windy side, so we decided we wouldn’t be unloading the bikes to take a ride here.  Instead, we drove through the park and took a windshield tour.  It’s still just as breathtaking as we last remembered. We had a great campsite. It was nice and quiet and we watched a few birds. We really enjoyed our propane campfire at night.  It’s still cool here. They call this the Grand Canyon of Texas. It is the second largest canyon in North America. The CCC sent 7 companies of young men to develop road access between 1933 and 1937. The park opened on July 4, 1934. It’s easy to see the erosion that has shaped the land here. This is a great place to just “be”.

Palo Duro Canyon State Park at our campground

Looking down into the canyon from the top.

Looking into the canyon

Well  that's a wrap for the great state of Texas! When we crossed the border we chalked up 876 miles from our home near the Gulf Coast to Farwell, Texas state line!

Coming up next we will be truckin' across New Mexico.