Stay Put or Risk Going Into The Belly of the Beast????

Location: San Angelo State Park (el. 2,000 ft); San Angelo, Texas

(all pictures taken with Nokia Lumia 929 cell phone)
(click pictures to enlarge)

Today was suppose to be moving day but I extended my stay here one more day due to predicted bad weather along my planned route. Looking at the weather forecast now, I'm debating on whether to extend another day or pull out tomorrow. 

San Angelo is about 200 miles west of Austin/San Antonio and 500 miles from my next main destination which is Galveston, Texas. Standing in the way are strong thunderstorms being fed by moisture from the Gulf of Mexico. Meanwhile, Hurricane Patricia, the strongest hurricane to ever exist in the western hemisphere, is about to collide with the Pacific coast of Old Mexico. Whatever is left after that collision is expected to cross Old Mexico and enter Texas. The path that it takes will be saturated with rain and storms as the worn out hurricane will continue to suck moisture from the Pacific Ocean and dump it along its path. To make matters worse, there is a cold front entering Texas from the northwest. This cold front will eventually sweep all the rain off to the east. The big question is where will this cold front from the northwest meet up with the remnants of Patricia. That meeting should produce some mighty big storms and I don't want to be anywhere close. Right now, that intersection is predicted to occur sometime tomorrow around the San Antonio area.

Liberty is sitting on a nice hill, to protect against flash flooding, with a hard surface campsite, so we won't get stuck in the mud. She has a full tank of fresh water and half empty waste tanks, so if the heavy storms hit here, we should be fine.   

My decision, to stay or go, will be made tomorrow morning. I will keep a close eye on the weather forecasts with hopes of falling in behind the cold front as it sweeps the storms away to the east. I have done this several times in my travels and it has worked pretty good, most of the time. 

On the lighter side, here are a few pictures from around the area.

A dam along the Concho River which flows through San Angelo. There were a couple of fishermen catching catfish and using Oscar Meyer hotdogs as bait. They told me it had to be Oscar Meyer as other brands would not work. I told them I remembered using cheese for catfish when I was fishing several decades ago. Neither had heard of that, but said they would try it one day. 

"The Pearl of the Conchos"
A statue of a mermaid as she offers a pearl to visitors. The fresh water mussels in the Concho River and its tributaries produce pearls of various colors. I can understand the pearl part, but a mermaid this far inland is a little strange.

Storms are brewing or as my mother used to say,,,,
"A cloud is coming up."

The sun found a hole in the clouds before it set

This is the Mesquite tree outside my door. I have grown to like them. Each one has its own characteristics of twisted trunks and limbs. 

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.