Lakeview Park, Coleman, TX April 29 – May 6, 2013

The drive to Coleman was one of the most interesting yet – the landscape was changing and the huge houses were giving way to small ranches, abandoned houses, overgrown fields of mesquite and yucca, and old homes with windmills and cisterns in the front yard.  I noticed the name of one ranch over the gate as we drove past – “Oleo Ranch – Just a Cheap Spread”.  I love a good sense of humor!

Coleman itself is a sad little town with many old adobe-looking buildings falling into ruin, an old two-story school building dark and broken, overgrown lots in the middle of the little town, yet in the midst of all this was a big beautiful bank and a large investment office building. We stopped at the Shoppin’ Baskit for groceries and found prices to be surprisingly low, as they are in most of Texas – bananas were 25 cents a pound, two 10 pound bags of potatoes for $4, and we got some wonderful Tamales – enough for two meals – for $4!

We’ve seen lots of wildflowers along the way – bluebonnets, verbena, rain lilies, Indian blankets, white prickly poppies, beach morning glories, Texas dandelions, and perhaps some Gay feathers. Lakeview Park is nearly deserted – the main drawing card being the lake, which is very low and has a no wake limit. It was in the 90’s when we arrived, but as long as we were in the shade, it was beautifully cool, with a lovely breeze coming in off the lake. The humidity was 18%.

 

Tuesday morning we had breakfast outside (I had a jacket and blanket on until around noon) and spent the entire morning in the shade watching a pair of mourning doves flirt.

Coleman is a huge park with lots of sites – some in loops with only 5 or 6 spots and others with 30 or more. The restrooms left a lot to be desired (motion sensors on showers and no temperature control on the water), but we’ve seen worse.  There were lots of different wildflowers in the park –  Huisache, Chocolate, Blackfoot daisies,  Verbena and others that I’ve never seen before. I’m still trying to identify them.  

The sunsets were spectacular while we were there and of course, we took lots of photos.

Wednesday we drove north to visit Abilene, pick up some groceries, and find some wi-fi, since we don’t even have cell phone coverage anywhere around Coleman. It was about an hour drive and we saw more wildflowers growing in every color of the rainbow, often with lush clumps of blooming cactus in the middle. There are acres and acres of land with mesquite trees growing wild, some with cattle or goats grazing between the trees. In the first 15 miles outside of Coleman, we only saw one house, although there were dirt drives with ranch names over them. As we traveled north, there was more and more signs of working farms and ranches, with plowed fields, baled hay, and farm equipment, but most structures were set so far off the road they were out of sight, even though the land is fairly flat here.

This just proves that not everything is larger in Texas. I'm standing in front of a group of about six full grown oak trees.

We drove through a little town called Lawn – just a handful of dilapidated buildings, several of which were abandoned but there was a café, a repair shop, and another building open for business.  I was depressed just driving past.

Much of Abilene is large brick buildings dating back to the late 1800’s, many more areas are like the fast growing areas from the 1950-60’s which are just tired looking, then an area that has all the usual businesses that end up around an interstate.  None of the old wooden buildings have survived, but there is a fairly new museum “Frontier Texas!” that depicts the cattle town from the early 1800’s. We didn’t make it through, but hope to make it back before we leave the area. We did visit the 12^th Armored Division Museum, which detailed the big part Abilene played in the training of soldiers who fought in World War II. At one point, the base in Abilene housed 60,000 men who were among those who had a hand in freeing the prisoners of German concentration camps. There were several videos which were very informative – one narrated by a Holocaust survivor and another by a soldier who had fought in the area.  It is obvious the museum is run on a shoestring, but the experience was one of the most emotionally draining we’ve had in a long time.  

We had lunch at Farolito’s, which was recommended to us by a woman at the Frontier Texas museum – we would never have found it otherwise. It is a Tex-Mex restaurant run by the Herrera family since 1936 and is tucked in behind some warehouses in a section of town we never would have driven into.

 

 The restaurant was very busy when we arrived, and I welcomed the wait to relax and regain my equilibrium from the museum. We ordered tamales and enchiladas then shared a marvelous flan that was fantastic. The entire meal was delicious and we ended up chatting with a couple of men at the next table who were in town from Fort Worth. They offered some additional insight on local restaurants, which is always welcome!

We had planned on going to another museum and finding a wi-fi location before heading back to Coleman, but after checking on the weather, decided to get some fuel and groceries and head back without additional stops. A cold front was moving into Texas and high winds, hail, and lightning were forecast for the evening. When we arrived back at camp, it was beautiful – about 85 degrees and breezy. We anchored a few things down, then settled in. Before long, we heard that Amarillo had snow and we were witness to a lightning show that rivaled any we’ve seen in Florida or the mountains, but with flashes lighting up the land as far as the eye could see. The lightning started at sunset, with flashes turning the sky purple and didn’t stop until after eleven. The hail only lasted about 15 minutes, but was deafening while it lasted. Poor Dickens couldn’t stop shaking. At about 4 AM, the high winds started and made the wind we had in Texarkana seem like a gentle breeze! The forecast had warned of 65 mph winds but don’t know what we actually had – I don’t think they have been 65 here, but probably well over 45. We got up around 7 AM and the temperature had dropped to 41 degrees. It is nearly noon, 43 degrees and we’re supposed to have high winds through 7 PM. Tomorrow morning is supposed to be down to 29.  I guess it’s true – there’s nothing like Texas in the springtime!

We left Coleman on the 6^th for Post, TX and had planned to stay there for six nights. We stopped in Sweetwater for breakfast burritos and I had a yen for doughnuts, so stopped in at the little hole-in-the-wall doughnut shop run by a little Asian woman and got the best apple fritters either of us have ever eaten.

Once we arrived at Post View RV Park, the campground at which we had reservations, we decided it was so nasty we’d only overnight! There was dog pooh all over, piles of yard trash in sites, about half of the electrical hookups had the covers missing, bare wires exposed, or some other glaring problem, there were broken PVC pipes and caps all over the place, and even if we had wanted to be outside, there wasn’t enough room to do so. The bathrooms were clean though… Early the next morning, we headed out to the Lubbock KOA for three nights.