A nice day traveling through rolling forests and then out onto the plains. Weather was cloudy with occasional sun but no rain. High pollen due to pines and flowers and almost every growing thing.
We just went along with the traffic from Rusk to Sherman on US-69, then US-82 to Wichita Falls. Hardly had to think about it.
In general, Texas roads are very good. Lots of four-lane, and even the two-lane roads have wide shoulders so you can move way over if you have to. We had to move for several mobile homes being towed to locations – lots of mobile homes and trailer parks out here.
The worst part of the trip was getting through Tyler TX. They love red lights. Everywhere. Darnedest tangle of roads and red lights. Do not travel this road through Tyler. Go somewhere else.
We stopped at a picnic site for a sandwich lunch. After we set up at the campground here (Coyote Creek Resort) D was hungry but I was not. So we made our own informal little dishes to our own individual schedules.
This campground is new and will be really something, someday. Lots of buildings intended for HQ, Store, etc. There was a wedding and reception in the large building yesterday. But it has growing pains, too. It's nowhere near full, maybe ¼ of capacity. Some sites have permanent roofs over them & I wonder if it's going to get ugly.
The worst part for us is the wi-fi service. It's sloooooooowwwwwww. I did a speed test using CNET's Bandwith Meter Speed Test and got 87 kbps internet speed. That's 87,000 bits per second. At home I get almost 6 mbps. That's 6,000,000 bits per second. Something's wrong with their setup here. They do have four wireless routers so there's signal all through the large park. But how did they (Tengonet) design something so slow? TBD.
Tomorrow, we'll loaf and look around town to see what Wichita Falls has to offer.
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20120315 in Wichita Falls TX
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We loafed a little this morning then went into town. Town is not very scenic, but I suppose it well supports the industries and ranching roundabout. Lots of train tracks, lots of metal recycling & salvage yards, and a few nice things.
One was Lucy Park, where we parked the truck and hiked along the river to the Falls. Great park, but lousy signage – couldn't figure out where anything was nor how far to it. But they'd begun putting out petunias and spiffing up the place, so it looked pretty good.
We found the railroad museum (closed) and by accident found the Tiny Skyscraper. The littlest skyscraper is four stories tall and about 12' x 10' length and width. Much of the square footage of each floor is said to be taken up by the stairway. Apparently the dude who built it did it to win a bet. Funny-looking thing.
We went out to Sheppard AFB and visited the Exchange, which is under construction (of course). Bought batteries and left. Looked at the two VFW places and decided not to go into either of them.
We returned to the park and made up our chicken/noodle/salad dinner (good!). Now we're back to seriously loafing. Heck, we earned it.
Off to Altus tomorrow.
