Although I'm planning to be traveling today as I have on several previous Sundays, I'm tired of being off my schedule so am trying to get this written between traveling plans.
Yesterday was the Summer Solstice - the longest day of the year. Here in Sanger, official sunrise was at 6:19 and sunset was 8:41. It's odd, really, that I've spent nearly 40 years in Texas, compared to 31 years up north, but I still think these are abbreviated days down here. Yesterday in Olympia, where I lived for 10 years, sunrise was at 5:16 and sunset at 9:10; in Juneau where I lived for 11 years, sunrise was at 3:51 and sunset at 10:07. Funny how thoroughly we can acclimatize to extremes rather than to moderation.
Where I moved to
Last Sunday I left my parking spot at David and Anna's house to go to Cedar Hill State Park, southwest of Dallas. My motive: access to air conditioning. I was lucky there and got a campsite that let me also have access to a phone signal and a signal for my hotspot, as well as TV reception.
I'd planned to stay only until Thursday, by which time I expected the heat wave to have passed. By the time I realized the forecast called for continuing heat into the mid-90s, and particularly nighttime temps in the mid-70s, I'd lost my chance at getting a reservation for the weekend at any state park.
Really. On Tuesday I spent hours checking the availability of campsites at any state park that wasn't west of Abilene, south of San Antonio, or on the Gulf Coast. I checked every other one. What I learned is that there were 5 campsites - not campgrounds, campsites - that were available over the weekend where I could plug in my AC. And all 5 of them were buried in the middle of their respective campgrounds. If I got buried, I would be able to walk the dogs only early in the mornings, before everybody else got up to walk their dogs. Impossible for my bouncy dogs to be confined like that for several days at a time.
Instead I took a spot at the KOA north of Denton. That's where I am now. Still lots of dogs but I'm in a site that gives me some options for places where I can take the dogs while dodging other dogs.
Today I'll head back to Cedar Hill with a reservation until Wednesday, but how long I'll actually stay depends on the weather.
What I saw
On the way to Cedar Hill, I passed Church of the Latter Rain - new to me so I looked it up and they say they're a "non-denominational Full Word ministry." From parts of their website I gathered that they believe the entire Bible is the Word of God, which I think means they interpret it literally. About a block away, I passed the Open Heavens Church, which says they "worship God with joy and gladness" and are "passionate" about passing their beliefs on to others. These are both in Garland. There seem to be lots of non-affiliated churches these days. When I was growing up, I think there were only the usual: Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, like that. Lots of free thinkers these days, I guess.
Crepe myrtle is in full bloom, which is nice now that the magnolias are fading.
I took Belt Line Road almost the entire drive. As usual, I wanted to stay off toll roads, and I've been curious about Belt Line since we first moved to Richardson when I was in high school. It runs all the way around Dallas County, hence the name. I drove through the towns of Farmers Branch, Carrollton, Coppell, Irving, and Grand Prairie, though I don't think that was all of them.
I passed a large building labeled Presto Products, which turns out to be that producer of kitchen items like electric griddles and electric skillets and electric pressure cookers. You know the brand.
I passed another large building labeled Halliburton. That name will forever conjure up former Vice President Dick Cheney in my mind, justifiably or not. I found a recent newspaper article that said the "oilfield services giant" had recently laid off almost 600 workers in Oklahoma and closed 2 service centers in Texas, though they didn't say how many layoffs that would entail. They did say it's due to the downturn in the oil business - or the "awl bidness" as Molly Ivins used to say.
In Farmers Branch I passed The Diner Of Dallas, A Classic Forever. So I wondered how long it had been there, checked their website, and learned it's just over 25 years old. To me, that makes it neither a classic nor forever. But I imagine they were being aspirational.
We stopped in the almost-empty parking lot of an industrial/office complex and I saw some trees that I don't know what they are. They've got what looks like fruit growing, but they also looked like some kind of pine tree. Is this what pine cones look like when they're young?I drove by one of Chrysler Products' 2 distribution centers - this one here in Carrollton - with the other up in St. Louis, MO.
I passed a sign for the turn to A.W. Perry Homestead Museum. A.W. and Sarah (Huffman) Perry came to this area in 1844, and claimed 640 acres and built a house in 1857. That's not what's at this museum, though. Instead, their son Dewitt and daughter-in-law Francis (Grimes) Perry tore down the old house in 1909 and built a new one with the original lumber. That's what's at this museum. They say it provides a glimpse of life in northcentral Texas at the turn of the 20th century. I got that when our family used to go visit my Daddy's older sisters. But this museum is still closed because of the virus so I wouldn't have been able to visit anyway.
I passed a sign directing drivers to the Carrollton Black Cemetery. I didn't make the turn but was curious. You can see the historical marker at that site at this link. https://www.hmdb.org
I passed several large developments, "master-planned," with descriptions that make me wonder who'd buy into this: "harmonious blend of picturesque residential pockets alongside soaring towers and the finest dining and entertainment amenities anywhere;" "perfectly placed in the heart of the Dallas Fort Worth metroplex and just 5 minutes from the DFW Airport." How much do you want to bet the new residents at that second place start complaining about the noise from the airport after their first year or so.
I passed a Vietnamese Catholic Church, and online learned that there are a number of them around Texas.
Cedar Hill State Park
At Cedar Hill State Park I first noticed a lot of mesquite trees, which I always equate to dry, desert-like conditions. And I learned there's a reason I think that: their roots can go as deep as 200' down to find water; they can also regenerate so cutting down a mesquite tree doesn't get rid of it. I've always thought they were pretty trees - they look lacy - but they've got some serious thorns, as we discovered in our back yard in Wichita Falls.
They've also got an exhibit on the Blackland Prairie of Texas, which is now endangered.
These photos aren't very clear, mainly because the sun was so bright I couldn't get a good angle on them. But basically they say that there used to be 12 million acres of Blackland Prairie in Texas, and it's now down to 5,000 acres.They also say that the way the seeds germinate is by fire, and we all know that fire is anathema to people who live in houses, which have been built in such abundance that the prairieland is nearly surrounded by them. So the people ensure that fire doesn't happen much to protect their houses, which means the plants can't propagate.
After staying at the park for 4 days, I can report that Cardinals live there in abundance. And on 2 mornings the dogs and I saw a Roadrunner.
They're about 2' long, so you can imagine how interested the dogs were in it. I wasn't expecting to see a bird I equate to desert atmospheres so it took a couple of minutes for me to figure out what I was looking at. Pretty neat.
I can also report that the park ranger told me on the way in that (a) this is chigger season so I needed to stay out of tall grass (try to tell that to the dogs, who prefer that as an environment to roll in) and (b) that many campsites were inhabited by Argentine ants and I should take precautions. I looked them up and learned that this particular invasive species seems to be really damaging. https://cisr.ucr.edu/invasive-species/argentine-ant
Actually, I couldn't remember much about chiggers either, my earlier years in Texas being way too far back to recall, so I looked them up too. And I learned that that "chiggers" is actually the regular common name (I'd always assumed it's just what we called them in Texas), and that they're found world-wide in moist grassy areas, and that only the babies bite - their saliva turns our cells into mush, which is what they eat to grow into adults, which don't bite us. No wonder we itch, if we're being turned into mush.
Sanger/Denton North KOA
And when I drove from Cedar Hill up to the Sanger/Denton North KOA, I saw almost non-stop "civilization." There's no more countryside anywhere along I-35 from southwest Dallas up into the beginning of West Texas. Meaning up here - the wind blows almost constantly, it's really flat, and it feels like I'm at the beach. My brother tells me the Texas topography begins a gradual change north of Denton, and up here I'm no longer in central Texas or northcentral Texas but changing into west Texas. It feels like it.
And I can Finally! report that I've finished my post on the National Civil Rights Museum that I visited in Memphis. I can't figure out how to get a url for it, but if you want to do a small search, it shows up between the posts for November 22nd and 23rd and is labeled "National Civil Rights Museum" (duh). Given current events, I found some clear parallels with and lessons from the past and hope this bodes well for the outcome for our national character.
In the 3 days I've been here, we've had 2 major storms. The first was my first night here. I first noticed this cloud formation, that looked both beautiful and ominous at the same time.
The clouds turned out to be ominous, bringing both heavy winds and heavy rain. Two days later and all the rain still hadn't sunk into the ground, which seemed odd to me because it hadn't exactly been soaked before.
But this morning when I took the dogs out on their first walk, I saw signs of another serious storm: a huge bank of black clouds covered half the sky - from west to east - and there were bolts of lightning coming from all parts of it. Scary for me to walk in, but I wasn't hearing much thunder so I let the dogs have their walk, just in case rain kept us from having much of one later. And now, a couple of hours later, the wind's blowing up to 65 mph, per the weather service, and they're predicting 5"-8" of rain by mid-afternoon.
The RV is rocking with each wind gust and the rain is so thick the visibility is low. Not good driving conditions. But it's not even 8:00 yet, and check-out time isn't until noon, so I'll just play it by ear.
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| breeding plumage |
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| winter plumage |
Future plans
David's been very industrious on my behalf, finding an electrician to connect 30 amps of power to the new box David's installing, and finding and ordering part of the system that we need to connect me to that box when it's got power. My minimal share of that was to find the rest of the system, which I immediately forgot I was supposed to do. Fortunately, David's figured out he's dealing with someone of diminished mental capacity (I'm blaming the heat) and asked me tactfully how I was coming along with that, thus reminding me I actually needed to take some steps on my own behalf. Which I did. It's all costing quite a bit of money but, as I pointed out to David, their refusal to take any money from me for 2½ months has allowed me to save more than enough to pay for it. If I'd been shelling out to campgrounds - well, even the state parks are charging me $25-$30/night. Private campgrounds are in the same or higher range. Plus, private campgrounds are ready to make back the money they lost during the spring shut-down so are willing to pack in however many campers they can get, which makes me really nervous.
Speaking of which, the state parks themselves aren't taking a uniform method of dealing with their mandate to allow only 50% occupancy. At Cleburne State Park, they allowed only every other campsite to be used, so there was always extra room between campers, a solution I was very comfortable with.
But at Cedar Hill State Park, they just shut down half of their park, and are putting all the campers in the other half with none of that silly separation like Cleburne does. When I got there last Sunday, I had campers across from me, next to me, and across from the people next to me. I guess I was saved from having people on the other side of me by being on the end of the row. Fortunately for my peace of mind, they all left the next day, and I had most of the row all to myself for the rest of my stay. But it made me a little nervous and more than ever interested in staying at Anna and David's, where at least the neighbors agree that social distancing is a really good idea.
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