So the Traveling Team is out for a ride towards Goliad for the purpose of getting out of the humidity for a short while. Along about Refugio (pronounced re-fury-io for the non-Texans) a rain squall comes out of the fields and gets the Truck wet. The wipers had to be re-educated as to their real job on the Truck.
In just a few minutes the Team is back to the hot baking heat of south Texas, but we carry on toward the goal. Eventually the land becomes more rolling as we enter the valley where Goliad is located. The park entrance is waiting for us to enter.
The Truck is parked in the slightly too small spots for Texas size vehicles. Then a short walk got me into the visitor center and its wonderful air conditioning. A flash of my pass and a few minutes visiting with the Ranger put a day pass in my hand. A nice trinket shop is off to the side of the check in counter. They had several neat things that people stuck in fixed housing might like to have for decorations. None for an RVer were found.
A step outside the visitor center and a look left will give you this view of the nice historical mission that is the reason for this park. The mission was not toured today since it has been toured many times before. It is worth a few visits in my opinion.
The Truck carried me on down to the pecan tree area that has been written up in this blog before. Today it was very shady and hopefully cool enough to get in some wonderful walking.
A little the other side of the grove of trees was a trail leading down to the river. As my feet got to the edge of the cliff here was the scene.
The embankment was loose sand and very steep. It did not seem conducive to a fun experience, especially climbing back up the loose sand. So that adventure did not happen.
Back in the grove of trees the Walking Team meandered around checking out this and that and whatever until it was noticed my head was complaining about the heat. Ok the Team will head back to the Truck. Once in the Truck with the AC blowing icicles on my head the outside temperature was checked. The Truck was parked in the shade and the gage read 99 degrees. No wonder my head was objecting.
After sitting for a few minutes the Team took a vote and decided that the OFM needed cooler activities for trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.
That is a neat area you visited today. And and I stayed one night there back in 1982 while doing a MC Texas tour. Had everything packed on our bikes.
ReplyDeleteHad a rain shower move in the next morning so we waited it out under our ponchs till it let up enough to drive on.
Nice park then, bet it is better now.
As soon as the weather cools down some, we want to visit as many Texas State Parks as possible and maybe some non-state parks, too. There is still some of Texas that I have not seen or would like to visit again.
ReplyDeleteYep, find'n a place to get out of the heat is quite a chore this year. I passed through Goliad years ago, but never took the Mission tour. Beautiful country to, as Barney would say...have too much fun.
ReplyDeleteGumo, Bibe ( four parks in the area), Palo Duro, Caprock Canyons, Davis Mountains There you have the top five in the state in my opinion. It would be easy to cover them all very well in about two years of continuous visitation.
ReplyDeleteThere's a new one,,and it's here. Called Canyon of the Eagles, absolutely beautiful. Don't miss it when u tour. It's on the far side of Lake Buchanan, in Burnet County.
ReplyDeleteTnT, that is an expensive resort facility on LCRA land run by a concessionaire. Here is the website http://www.lcra.org/parks/developed_parks/canyon.html
ReplyDeleteIt does look very nice.