Texas - Day 140 - Lost Maples to Possum Kingdom

Possum Kingdom State Park, Caddo

Tuesday, 23 March 2021

Instead of trying to walk around the campground before we hit the road, I drove us down to the picnic area so the dogs could walk in a space less encumbered by numerous big dogs.  Even there, I got questioned by a park ranger who couldn't figure out what either we or the RV were doing down there - even though she saw the camping tag the park had given me for the last 2 nights.

Anyway, they had informative signs there that I hadn't noticed earlier, one of which said what's here are Bigtooth Maples.  Wikipedia says they're native to North America and occur in scattered populations from Montana down into northern Mexico, including a nice chunk of them here in Lost Maples (and I guess the name comes from that "scattered populations" bit).

scarlet clematis

The signs also said a plant called scarlet clematis is found along the park's trails and, in fact, only grows on the Edwards Plateau in central Texas.  They had a picture that didn't come out very clear in my pre-dawn photo-taking, so I got this one off the internet.

today's route

I turned a different way on TX Hwy. 187 than I came in on, and here too the speed limit is posted as 70 mph.  But here too there are curves and s-curves and many more hills than flat road and I doubt if 70 is the speed most people drive.  Because Lost Maples park is in a canyon (Sabinal River canyon), I had a steep climb to leave it.

I had official confirmation of my belief I was in Hill Country when I turned on TX 39 and saw a sign saying I was on the Texas Hill Country Trail.

I saw thick stands of oaks, acres of mesquite and cedar/juniper and prickly pear, and acres of scrub brush.  I saw deer, cows, and constant hills.

Wikipedia says the Edwards Plateau is the crossroads of Central, South and West Texas.  The area is roughly bounded by San Angelo, Del Rio, San Antonio and Austin.  In other words, a pretty good-sized piece of territory.

Any hope I had of making good time foundered when I got stuck behind a road work crew and a monster piece of unrelated farm equipment.  The young people in that Subaru in front of me could hardly contain their impatience, and I could see they were seriously considering jumping that curb on the left and going around both the farm equipment and the work equipment and crew.  Granted we had to wait awhile, but at least the sun was shining.  I knew they were young because one of the passengers got out to look around the farm equipment and make frustrated gestures to the work crew.  And because they quite clearly hadn't lived long enough to develop a sense of patience in the face of immovable reality (one of the benefits of age).

In reality I think we were stuck only about 10 or 15 minutes, but it seemed longer because we couldn't see what was going on, thanks to that farm equipment.  As I finally passed the work crew, I saw that their machinery was striping newly paved road, and not just painting lines but sticking something rough and reflective to the lines to make them more visible to drivers, I guess.

We passed by my old friend Junction and then headed north.  I saw orchards and croplands and lots of sheep.

I came to the little town of London, which looked a lot bigger than the population of 180 in 2000 that I found online.  Actually their sign said:

     Welcome to London

     With a ♡ as big as Texas

We stopped there to take a break, because by then we'd been on the road 2 hours.  And I found this little slice of Americana.

London, TX, Post Office

close-up of that
historical marker

Back on the road, I continued to pass lots of sheep.  Before this trip, I can't say I even knew Texas did much sheep raising - I always thought of cattle.  Quite clearly I was wrong.

And all day I saw signs that warned Road May Flood.  It took me a long time, and a lot of Road May Flood signs, but I finally realized those are code for Low Water Crossing.  I don't know why they don't just say what they mean, though I suppose they have to be blunt with some drivers.

Here in Texas Hill Country I saw plenty of oaks and prickly pear; rocky land and grazing land; hills and winding roads; cows and deer.  One deer managed to jump the fence to run away from me - and that fence was head-high to him/her.  Six others ran across the road in front of me to get away from me.

Even the San Saba River had a low water crossing - sorry, Road May Flood.

I continued to see lots of sheep, a herd of horses with one very new colt.  I saw lots of cows grazing on grass in acres of cleared land.  Having passed so much scrub and prickly pear on these lands, I realized that clearing this land must be seriously hard work.  There's a lot of prickly pear.

I had a semi follow me (at a distance) on 3 different roads, all narrow and rural.  Every time I'd turn onto another rural road, I'd think he was going to turn off, but still he kept behind me.  When we got on US 190 he finally got close enough to me to pass, so I pulled over to let him do it, and he was nice enough to flash his lights thank you.

Back again at Brady, I stopped for gas and noticed a shop I'd missed the other day: Serenity Quilts of Many Colors.  Online they say they're a family-owned business and have operated for the last 5 years.  Wonder if the pandemic helped or hurt their business - I'd think quilt-making would be a perfect activity for folks stuck in quarantine at home.

At the Brady Cattleman's BBQ restaurant, I saw a sign saying "Pray For Rain."  Which is a pretty good summary of the town's situation.

Northern Harrier

Back on the road I saw a large bird carrying nesting material.  I thought it was a Northern Harrier (which I still think of as Marsh Hawk), because of the white at the base of its tail, and because it flies with its wings slightly canted up in a V.  But the bird book says they only come to Texas in the winter, meaning it shouldn't be carrying nesting material, so I looked for another candidate and ran into trouble.  Either the bird book said these others shouldn't be nesting here, or I couldn't tell how much visible white they had on the tops of their tails.

Ferruginous Hawk

Rough-legged Hawk

Swainson's Hawk

The Ferruginous Hawk looks right but should only be in this area irregularly in winter, not nesting in the spring.  The only pictures I could find of the Swainson's Hawk, which actually is known to nest in this area, show white only on the underside of the tail, and what I saw was on the top, so I don't know if this is it.  This photo of the Rough-legged Hawk shows the white on the tail in the right place, but they too are expected in this area only irregularly in winter.  Well, I tried.

I decided some of these drivers don't deserve their Texas license plates: they're so reluctant to pass, even in clearly marked passing zones, that I started to wonder if, instead of only pulling over, they expected me to come to a complete stop and hand them an invitation to pass.  It's just that, with all these safety features nowadays like rough strips marking the shoulder of the road, it's actually uncomfortable for me to pull over because of running the RV and its contents over these rumble strips, so I get frustrated with the timid souls that don't seem very Texan, especially not rural Texan.  Maybe they just moved here.

I was looking for the Geographic Center of Texas (I mentioned it when I went through Brady a few days ago) and thought I'd found it when I got to the Heart Of Texas Park.  It was a really nice roadside park, off the road with very pleasant covered picnic tables and a view, but I couldn't find any kind of marker, which I figured it ought to have.  Turns out I was just premature - I found it just down the road.

There's a lot of geographical information about Texas here.

Coming into Brownwood, I passed a HUGE Kohler plant and a HUGE 3M plant.  Brownwood has a population of 19,288, and I'm guessing these are the 2 main employers in town.  

Since I'd seen a sign saying I was now in Brown County, it occurred to me to wonder if Brownwood might be the county seat, and sure enough it is.

Brown County Courthouse 
in Brownwood

Because I hadn't planned ahead I had to do a lot of driving around to find the courthouse and could only get a photographic angle at this street corner.  I'd hoped for a red light, but this photo shows I had a green one and couldn't hold up traffic.  Anyway, this courthouse was built in 1917 in the Classical Revival style, replacing the earlier 1884 building that a fire burned almost everything of but the vault inside.

While I was driving around I found another amazing building and, after I found the courthouse, I went back to take a picture.

This is the 1903 Brown County Jail, now a museum.
Pretty fancy for a jail.

There's a town in Texas named Blanket.  I passed the turnoff for it.  It had 390 residents in 2010.

I passed through the small town of May, with 285 residents in 2000.  The entire town has been declared a Texas Historic Landmark, though I don't know why that means we don't have more current census information.

A little way - and a large pecan orchard/plantation - down the road, I came to Rising Star, a community of 835 as of 2010.  Apparently the town's name came from lengthy debate among the residents when they first applied for a post office, their first choice of "Star" having been rejected because of another one already in Texas.  This town is in ranching country, surrounded by cows and what look like hay fields.

I got 3 more light-flashing thank yous today, one of them from a semi when I flashed my lights to tell him he had room to move back in front of me safely, when we were on a busy highway and I was going only 65 mph.

I came to the town of Ranger, which had no highway sign so I had to figure it out for myself.  Based on population, it deserves a sign more than May, since it had 2,468 residents in 2010.  We stopped for a short walk in a little park downtown, where I saw a marker saying the park was Dedicated to Zeno Smith - Last of the Black Hat Rangers."  It made me wonder if the town had been named for the Texas Rangers, though I can't find anything online that says one way or another.  Probably not, since the town was originally one of the oil boomtowns of the 1920s.

Not far from there I passed a very small field, and behind the wire fence I saw a sign saying, "Forbidden Zone - Trespassers Will Be Prosecuted."  It seemed an odd place to protect, because it was a very small field.  And using the word "forbidden" immediately made me want to climb over the fence.  Such an odd word to use on private property.

Driving onward, now along the park road, I saw 2 deer together: to avoid me, one jumped the fence and the other crawled under it.  And it was barbed wire so it probably hurt.  With those long thin legs I wouldn't have thought a deer could crawl, but this one sure did.

And on to Possum Kingdom State Park, where we'll stay again for 2 nights.  Today covered the best part of 300 miles, mostly on farm-to-market roads.  I got to see a lot of Texas countryside, which is what I wanted, but I got pretty tired and need a rest.