Saturday, March 2, 2019

Bush Library, Nasty Weather and Moving Day

East Fork Park (Corps of Engineers) Campground; Wylie (near Dallas), Texas

All pictures taken with Nokia Lumia Icon 929 Cell Phone

Today is the sixth and final day here at East Fork. When I planned this trip, the weather was forecasted to be clear and partly sunny with the temperatures in the mid to upper 50's during the day and mid to upper 30's at night. For me, that is great weather. Tuesday was the only day they got the forecast right. The rest of time it has been very chilly, wet and breezy. One day it remained foggy all day with misting rain. A cold front is due to blow thru tomorrow morning with temperatures dropping to the low 20's tomorrow night. Luckily, I'll be about 200 miles south of here by then but even at that distance the low there will be in the upper 20's. It's not going to be a true Blue Norther, but maybe a half of one. It should be about 38 degrees while I'm hitching up tomorrow. But it's all good,,,,, You can't appreciate good weather if you don't have some crappy weather every now and then.

It's been difficult finding campgrounds again like it was last summer when I went north to the Great Lakes. I'm beginning to believe it is the new normal. There are so many people now a days who are living in their RV's fulltime in an RV park. That's good for the park owners and those permanent "campers", but it makes it hard for RV travelers to find campsites when moving around. When I was traveling a lot more frequently a few years ago, I always had reservations, but they were usually only about a week in advance. Even though I never saw a campground totally full and could have traveled without reservations, I felt comfortable knowing I had a place to stay at the end of tow. That has now changed. Finally, after hours of searching and changing directions of travel, I have reservations through the 15th. I don't think I like this new paradigm (wow, strange word). 

I rode the train back into Dallas yesterday. I went to the SMU campus to visit the George W. Bush Presidential Library. I've been to Reagan's and Hoover's libraries and thought they were great. Bush's, not so much. Maybe it was because his presidency is so recent. Security was super tight to get in the place. I had to take everything out of my pockets, remove my jacket, belt and hat before walking through a metal detector. I may have, but I don't remember doing that at Reagan's or Hoover's library. I asked the guards why security was so tight and they said it was because Bush was a wartime president and still alive. Hmmmm,,,, I hadn't thought about it but I guess his library would be a good symbolic target for some bad people. The high security didn't bother be too much and after passing through the metal detector, I remembered I had to do the same security check just to get to the observation deck of the Empire State Building in New York City back in 2014.
Some beams from the World Trade Center

I need to make this post and then head into to town to gas up for traveling tomorrow. I may even visit a fancy restaurant I heard about i
n town for some authentic, world renown Mexican food. I sure hope I can get in without reservations because some Taco Bell would be some good eating tonight.

Even with poor weather, there is a pretty picture to be found if we look for it. This picture is what will bring my memories back to this place years from now. It seems the weather will be what defined this campground.
 Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.  

6 comments:

  1. A lot of people on the road these days... good luck!

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  2. Yep the availability of campsites has become a trouble for me also. Have fun anyway. I will be interested to see where you land and what you visit.

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    1. Hello Barney. Yeah, lack of planning a trip may be a problem. I hope you feel better soon.

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  3. The last photo is beautiful. This weather has been crazy. The Phoenix Valley is finally warming up. I agree with the difficulty of finding places to stay if you don't plan well in advance. It seems to take the the freedom of traveling with no expectations and no reservations out of the picture. Keep traveling safe.

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    1. Hi Barb. Yeah, I agree, some freedom has been taken away from us with the change in traveling. Time for an update on your blog, uh?

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