Central to West Texas

We bypassed Dallas driving the interstate south of the city.  I must confess, that I couldn't resist a certain finger jester as I thought about George Bush residing in the City.  I even hope he felt a moment of extreme discomfort.  Not kind, I know, but neither is he!

Oil isn't the only energy resource in Texas.  We saw miles and miles of these wind turbines. 

Cacti were everywhere.  And there are rumors that snakes come out in the Spring, so we were very careful where we walked!  Which is worse?  Cactus spines or snakes?

The rocks are all covered with a layer of dried dead water slime type plants.

While Texas allows fishing in their state parks from the shore without a license, there was really nowhere that looked promising.

After Caddo Lake and East Texas, we were overwhelmed with the miles and miles of dry flat ground. Cows grazed on sparse dead grass around oil wells and dust blew everywhere. We often guess at the fire danger when we see the signs in the distance. We of course guessed that it would be high in West Texas and were wrong. The signs posted it as moderate. I cannot imagine what high fire danger looks like here! We camped at Colorado City State Park on a reservoir. It appears quite different on the map than in reality. One side of the reservoir has a large noisy power plant and the other side is a state park. The reservoir is only about one-third full. We know that the rainy season here is August and September so maybe this is normal for this time of year but it sure seemed like a very low water level!

There is some water.

But the water is a long ways from the "beach".

Bobcat track.

We had to test it!  Mistletoe does work in March.

There were many of these facilities.  The appear to be some sort of oil settling pond.

There are several places that are still actively drilling for oil. 

Roadrunner track.  Though rangers kept telling me they were around, I never saw one.

Typical of much of the countryside.

We took several back roads that went straight, straight, straight through the desert.  I was constantly reminded of old John Wayne movies and the depiction of the countryside as challenging and unfriendly (like enemy).  Two of the places that we camped, Louie could not walk on the ground without getting painful, sharp spurs in his paws.  Now I do believe that the people who settled this country were tough .  Or desperate.  Or misguided!  They didn't know then that they would be rewarded with oil.  There is a reason there are no mansions located besides the wells out here!

For Laura

East Texas

     We traveled across the northeast corner of Louisiana and into Texas.  The terrain was rolling hills, covered with oil fields and cows.  I don't know why, but next to wells pumping furiously, would be ramshackle houses and single wide trailers.  Are the mineral rights sold separately from the land, or are these people tending the wells for distant owners?  I don't know, but I sure didn't see mansions and evidence of oil money in the Texas countryside.  I mumbled secret prayers that the wells would suddenly pump much more oil so that gas prices would come down.  I would send the profits to the local impoverished population, but I have to admit it was a selfish desire for lower gas prices that motivated my prayers.



Oil field.



Uncertain is a very small town, but if all of us who are really uncertain moved there it would be the largest city in the country!

        We stayed at Caddo Lake campground.  It was a beautifully otherworldish.  Cypress trees grew out of the water and Spanish moss decorated them like tinsel on old fashioned Christmas trees.  Turtles lined logs at every opportunity for sun, though most of the time it was cloudy.  We stayed an extra day waiting for sun so that I could paint in the ambiance of bayou, but when the sun came out, so did the wind.  I will have to paint that picture from photographs!

Turtles basking in the overcast.

       While we were staying at Caddo Lake, we noticed that Louie kept staring at a 6 inch circumference white plastic pipe sticking out of the ground next to our camp.  He was acting like Bernie, who because he didn't see well, would assume that inanimate objects were dangerous intruders.  Finally, after a couple of days we investigated and found a possum face down in the pipe unable to move.  It was slightly alive and we took the coward's way out.  We told the rangers and let them deal with this wild animal!

Gargantuan ranches covered the East Texas countryside.

You know you are leaving East Texas when the land becomes flat and the roads are straight.