Feb 23-27 Visiting Bryan's Family

We have spent the last week visiting with Bryan's Mom, Irene, sister, Anita, her husband Jay & their two kids, Melanie (2 yrs) & Julie (3 wks). It's been great to see them all again and to meet baby Julie. She is just a doll with big ol' cheeks - very sweet temperament. Melanie has grown ALOT since I saw her last (Christmas 2007) when she was just a year old. She is talking up a storm (some of which I can understand) and has the curliest head of hair (she was pert near bald a year ago). haha

It's been a fairly quiet week. Just sitting around the house visiting with the family & playing with the kids and Hannah & Maggie. Too bad they are still so young and Melanie is still so young, she's a bit leery of them and they are a bit too wild for her still. We've made a trip to Breckenridge Park, just a few blocks away to feed the ducks and also to a local elementary school to let Melanie play on the playsets there. Lots of fun - Hannah & Maggie were mesmerized by all the kids and implements of play there are.

A full five days here and Bryan has only had to fix one screen & a park bench that the pups tore & chewed up, and we had to replace one ball that they got a hold of... I think its great that's all the damage they've done but Bryan is ready to string them up by their little tails.

Anita and Melanie at the swings

Grandma (Irene) & Julie

Uncle Bryan & Melanie

Anita, Melanie, Uncle Bryan and Grandma

Baby Julie & Anita

We are camped at Lake Lavon near Wylie, TX in the East Fork campground. A fantastic Army Corps of Engineers park right on the lake. We are in site 39 and really surprised at how large the sites are and how spacious each one is. We have a terrific view of & easy access to the lake. It is only about 9 miles from Anita & family in Richardson.

Maggie & Hannah as Lake Lavon campground

Camp site #39 at East Fork campground
at Lake Lavon

We leave tomorrow (Saturday) for Monahans Sand Dunes and points south & west.

Feb 19-20 - First Stop: Caprock Canyons State Park, Texas

Feb 19 - Today we helped get Grandma set up with a home nurse and got Grandpa scheduled to see his physical therapist, made a call to Phillips Lifeline to get them both the "life alert" type system and hit the road around 1 PM (MST). Our first stop (after filling up with diesel in Portales) was Caprock Canyons & Trailways State Park in Quitaque (prounounced kitty-qway), Texas - well we may have had a couple bathroom stops before we got there, but that was our first overnight stop.

We decided, since we still aren't working, to take a road trip back to Texas to see Bryan's new neice, Julie and my new great-nephew, Kody, along with all the other family members there. Grandpa's scare got me to Pep ahead of schedule but now we are back on track. The plan flucuates slightly (Caprock was a last minute addition) but the plan is/was to go to Sanger, TX for a few days to see my nephew, Scott, & his family, take day trip up to Oklahoma to see my sister, Iwona and her clan and then head over to Lavon Lake near Wylie, TX to camp while we visit Bryan's Mom & sister (& her family) in Richardson. While there, I'll venture out to visit another sister, Virginia in Azle, and my niece Elisha & her new baby in Lake Worth. After we've had our fill of family, we'll head south (for a change of scenery) to Big Spring, on to El Paso, Las Cruces, NM, Elephane Butte Lake, and then home. At least that's the plan thus far.

Total Route Map as of Feb 20
(remember you can click on any image to enlarge it)

Feb 19's Route Map to Caprock Canyons

Caprock Canyons State Park is a really nice park - the camping sites (at least the RV ones) are terrific - HUGE spaces, with lots of privacy. There are sites with eletric and water hookups (some are 30 amps & others are 50 amps). Prices seem reasonable - $15 for 30 amp and $20 for 50 amp service. We were/are a bit confused about the Day Use fee - it seems you need to pay it even if you pay for camping but... its confusing. Maybe you don't have to... Anyway, we made online reservations for a 30 amp site but got in late and set up in a 50. We went back the next day to pay but they said to forget it. The picnic tables are covered with a wind break & are on a cement pad, there is a pole to hang up your lanterns. There is also a fire-ring but I cannot imagine there ever being a time you could have an open fire in that area. It just seems WAY to dry. There is a nice bathhouse with showers too. Down side to the sites - grass-burrs, stickers to you Texans. Lots of them. This is the first time Hannah & Maggie have encountered stickers and they are not fans. It's almost funny to watch them, they don't really know how to pull them out, so they stand there on three legs, then try to stand on two because ALL their feet have stickers. Eventually they just sit until one of us rescues them.

Feb 20 - Caprock Canyons State Park is also home to the official Texas state bison herd. However, we only saw a few of the bulls and that was from a distance. This parks hosts miles & miles of hiking, biking & equestrian trails. Unfortunately our time here was short and we only saw what we could see from the scenic drive. Maybe we can come back sometime and explore more. Spring & Fall are said to be the best times to visit.

Hannah, Raymona & Maggie, camp site 27

Campsite 27

Start of the scenic driveThere is a small "lake" (Lake Theo) located within the park (that I neglected to get a photo of) and at the visitor center there were photos of fish hooked from there that were huge!!! Lots of tent camping in very scenic locations, the RV campsites weren't scenic but private.

Hannah & Maggie Playing on the bed

Camping is exhausting!!!

It took us about 5 hours to get to Caprock from Pep. Some of the drive was boring but once we got to the edge of the caprock the scenery really improved.