Our first stop of the morning was at the visitor center for the Amistad National Recreation Area. The area was created when they dammed the Rio Grande River just north of Del Rio, Texas, creating a large reservoir along the US/Mexico border. The US side is a National Park Service recreation area, with boat launches, trails, campgrounds, archeological sites and picnic areas. It looks like it would have been a nice place to explore. Unfortunately, it was raining and Ellen's ankle is still quite sore. We merely got the park stamps and were on out way to Del Rio for breakfast.
The folks at the VC suggested IHOP, Skillets and a Mexican place. We decided on Skillets, assuming that it was a local breakfast place. That was a mistake. The service was slow, the breakfasts came out cold and the coffee was so bad that Ellen wouldn't even drink it. Later in the day, we passed another one, hundreds of miles away and realized that it was also a chain. Wouldn't even rate it a one.
While having breakfast, we connected to Google Maps to try and plan a route for the day. It looked like Lake Texana, East of Victoria, Texas, would be a good day's drive. Our slightly longer plan is to get to High Island for a day or to of early season birding. It may be a little too early, but there might be a few early migrants about. Once we get internet, we'll check the eBird reports to see what's being seen.
Another goal is to avoid interstate highways and major cities for as long as we can stand it. We'd initially assumed that today's route would take us through San Antonio and it was a surprise when one of the Google Maps alternatives took a route well south of San Antonio and on all back roads. The route took us on US 90 out of Del Rio to Uvalde where we took Farm Road 140 for over 100 miles to Campbellton, then a series of farm roads through Karnes City and Kenedy until we got onto US 59 at Goliad. We continued on US 59 all the way through Victoria to Edna and then a short way TX 111 to the campground at Lake Texana.
The section on FM 140 was the nicest part and it finally stopped raining just before mid-day. We stopped at Pearsall for lunch at Cowpokes BBQ. It was listed on the last Texas Monthly Top 50 BBQ Places in Texas, so it seemed a good bet ... but the list was from 2013. The brisket was okay, but nothing to write home about. It was a bit too wet and didn't have much smoked taste. We have had much better in Texas from places not on the list. Maybe a four (out of ten). After our rather quick lunch it was back onto FM 140 to Campbellton.
Once we got onto the roads beyond Campbellton, it went down hill. We had entered an active oil patch with lots of wells and drilling. This meant lots of heavy trucks which resulted in pretty badly torn-up farm roads. In some places, it looked liked the farming had been replaced by royalties from fracking, with fallow, unkempt fields around upgraded houses.
US 59 became a multi-lane highway as we approached Victoria and it went right through the middle of the city. It was a bit slow going through town, but only due to traffic lights, not traffic and we arrived in the park and at our site before 5:30.
We managed to get a rather nice site, set back from the road and right on the lake. It has no visible sites on either side—quite private. We can have it only one night as it is reserved for tomorrow night, but we will be off to High Island in the morning. It was a long day and except for the oil patch, a pleasant drive.
It will be interesting to see how much we can keep off the highways for the next few days as we traverse Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. We have a tiny bit of I-45 as we go over the bridge onto Galveston Island, which allows us to avoid Houston. We've driven the length of the island from the south end before and once you get near Galveston, the traffic can be abysmal. We are hoping to take the bay-side industrial road up to the ferry from the end of the I-45 bridge and avoid the traffic along the oceanfront road.
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