Thursday at Arrowhead

I spent Thursday morning by going on a couple of hikes here at the Park. Both hikes were in the area of the


equestrian campground. There was one trail that petered out about 3/4 of the way through. The ground had standing water and when I pushed my walking stick into the ground it sunk about 8 inches before coming to a stop. Luckily the grass in this area was so high and thick that I was able to walk in this area and not sink into the mud. The grass spread my weight out. I still had water to deal with, but my boots worked perfectly and kept the water out. I'm sure because of the conditions the park crew can't get the mower in there to maintain that part of the trail. I did come across area that had wild plums growing. I might go out on saturday morning and pick some of the ripe/near ripe ones. After hiking I went back to camp and cooked steak and mac & cheese for brunch. Hung around camp without a shirt on and now my back and stomach are red. A plus from last night, I rigged a small fan to the roof of my tent cot and had a cool breeze all night last night I slept great.

On thursday evening I went into town to the MPEC to attend the Western Swing Festival. I met with my friend Rod Moag and his friend Peter Oresich. Peter is visiting from Slovenia and has a radio show there. I don't have pictures of Peter or the friends that came with him, but I'll get some tonight.


I saw the Bob Wills' playboys last night as well as Leon Rausch and Tommy Allsup. Dennis Ivey and his band played as well as John England and his band. The music wa excellent and I can't wait to go back on Friday to see the next days bands. I have an all day wristband for Friday and Saturday, so I might as well go and enjoy the A/C. And there is free high speed Internet so maybe I can get some stuff done while I listen. Will post about Friday after Friday is done.



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Location:Wichita Falls, TX

Lake Arrowhead

I'm camping this week at Lake Arrowhead State Park. I arrived yesterday at about 2:30. When I got here I stopped at the park office. I asked the attendant if I could go scout out areas and chose a spot then come back and tell her which one I wanted. She told me that I couldn't do that. I asked her to recommend a spot and she suggested #25. After check in I went to the campsite. The big plus to 25 is that it's a complete pull through. That's it. It was right next to the road and had no shade. I then checked the other sites on this loop and other loops and determined that either 29 or 27 would be the best available sites in the park. 29 had abundant shade and I could set my tent cot up on the same side of the parking pad as the water and electric hookups. After checking the covered picnic table I discovered that there was a large wasp nest in the eaves over the picnic table scratch 29. I knew 27 had shade also, but not all day like 29 had. After checking for wasps I determined that that was the site I wanted. I then went to the office and had them change me to site 27.


After getting camp set up I called an old Jellyfish.com friend and made plans to meet in Wichita Falls for supper. We decided I'd mee Ear at her house and we'd go from there. She did the driving so I got to sit shotgun and see all the sites. We went to eat at a hole in the wall Mexican food restaurant called Casa Manana.


The food was excellent, especially their signature tacos served with red corn taco shells or tortillas. After eating we went to the offically recognized, worlds smallest skyscraper. You'll have to google or wikipedia the story. But short version is that the building was a well executed scam from the 1920's and that the scale was 1 foot = 1 inch. So instead of several hundred feet high, it's only as tall as a 3 story building. After going through downtown and seeing the sites, including the Bar L drive up beer joint


we went to Monkeybutts and I got to meet her and see the place where most of their family have lived throughout the years. We also saw the waterfalls and drove by the Allred Unit, where 'Ear' works.

I also took time before heading into town to take some pictures of the prairie dogs here at the park. The prairie dogs in the prairie dog town were shy but the ones by the swimming beach were more photogenic.

After all that running around I came back to camp and went straight to sleep. Oh, on the way back from visiting I found a walmart that had a gas station. I took the time to go in and buy a small fan


and that really helped me sleep last night. It kept me cooler and the noise was like the fan at home.


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Location:Park Road 63,Wichita Falls,United States