Friday, October 15, 2004
Rita Blanca Lake Park, Dalhart, TX - Oct 15
This was our last stop with Fred & Linda Lanoue, and we were undecided whether to stay one night or two.
The state of Texas, Hartley county, and the city of Dalhart have been playing Hot Potato with this park for the last few years. It's currently in the hands of the city. Rates are posted for camping with or without hookups ($12 and $6), but there are no obvious places to dry camp, so we set up on the edge of a large dirt parking area by some picnic tables (what we were supposed to do was park in the hookup sites but not hook up). Late in the afternoon we were told that we couldn't park there (even though it was obvious that we could since we were) but we pleaded our case and she grudgingly allowed us to stay there one night. This resolved the issue of whether to stay for one night or two. Our parking area turned out to be a favorite place for Dalhartans (Dalhartians?) to "cruise" through. Some of the younger people seemed to enjoy carving doughnuts in the lot. In a classic "good news/bad news" scenario, this activity was cut short by a cold front that dropped temps from 80 to 50 and buffeting our trailers with sustained winds of 30 mph (and gusts probably twice that). It was sad, as always, saying good-bye to Fred & Linda -- we are unsure when we will next see each other but hope it will be later this winter.
The state of Texas, Hartley county, and the city of Dalhart have been playing Hot Potato with this park for the last few years. It's currently in the hands of the city. Rates are posted for camping with or without hookups ($12 and $6), but there are no obvious places to dry camp, so we set up on the edge of a large dirt parking area by some picnic tables (what we were supposed to do was park in the hookup sites but not hook up). Late in the afternoon we were told that we couldn't park there (even though it was obvious that we could since we were) but we pleaded our case and she grudgingly allowed us to stay there one night. This resolved the issue of whether to stay for one night or two. Our parking area turned out to be a favorite place for Dalhartans (Dalhartians?) to "cruise" through. Some of the younger people seemed to enjoy carving doughnuts in the lot. In a classic "good news/bad news" scenario, this activity was cut short by a cold front that dropped temps from 80 to 50 and buffeting our trailers with sustained winds of 30 mph (and gusts probably twice that). It was sad, as always, saying good-bye to Fred & Linda -- we are unsure when we will next see each other but hope it will be later this winter.# posted by Doug and Willie @ 11:39 PM 
