Day 14: Lake Casa Blanca International State Park: I never make plans that far ahead.

Lovely sleep. Not too warm. Nice morning walk around some of the trails. Did not see wildlife. Did see signs of wildlife like furry poo (the kind coyotes make, not the kind people with stuffed tails attached to them make although I have no direct experience with that). Saw deer poo too. Various tracks of living things. There was a light drizzle (theme for the day).

BTW, you can click images to open a new tab and see them in more bigness.

Mrs Milddogs noticed that something had been munching on one of the cacti on our site last night. We suspect the deer as the damage is up high. But maybe the peccary?

I forgot to rate the showers at Mustang Beach. They are like old school Ontario Provincial Park. Push the button and get 30 seconds of water at the current temperature they are willing to give you. But, it was a shower. Not clean. Let’s give it a 2/10.

Mrs Milddogs did a big cleaning of the washroom, the windows and other parts of the van. I tightened a bolt on the stove. We did decide that based on the forecast we would stay an extra day here and shorten our stay at the next stop. Supposed to be hot here tomorrow, but rainy where we are going next. There is a large cold front that will dominate our weather over the next 5 days or so. Sad face. No freezing temperatures forecast where we will be so that’s the positive. Really nowhere to hide from it other than crossing into Mexico and heading south. We are not doing that.

Still reading that book. It still has words. A lot of words.

At lunch Mrs Milddogs had some Guacamole Ice Cream as our fridge is a bit cold. We have adjusted the fridge. We went for a hike on the loop right behind our campsite. It was a nice loop with few opportunities to get lost. I am glad I have AllTrails downloaded on my phone.

We made the call to do some in town stuff and pick up dinner. Before we departed we made our site look occupied. We laid out our crappy outdoor mat, weighted down by rocks. I strung a clothesline with the rope Mrs Milddogs “found” at the beach and put a dirty towel on it. All of this in the hope that someone would not decide we had vacated our site. Spoiler alert, it worked.

On the shopping front we picked up some Crazy Glue (official runny stuff) and some clear nail polish. My use of Gorilla Gel Super Glue was a fail to stop the spread of my crack. Heck, if the entire DEA could not stop the spread of crack, how can I do so with a tube of gel cyanoacrylate? Perhaps we are dealing with different cracks? Anyway, the gel glue came off. Next I shall try the traditional runny stuff and if that fails, the clear nail polish. the best news here is that the crack stopped spreading as it made a lovely U shape that surrounds our mirror attachment point. Do not touch the mirror!

We picked up BBQ Brisket from Rudy’s. It’s a chain BBQ place but is also one of the better rated BBQ joints in Laredo. We enjoyed it. Staff there was really nice.

On the way back into the park we celebrated serendipity as my wrong turn on the way back delayed us a few minutes which meant we got to see a peccary at the park entrance. Sorry, no photos. I am beginning to suspect they bait the wildlife at the entrance to create that welcoming experience for us visitors. People use the terms peccary and javelina interchangeably. Also known as a skunk pig. Yuck!

Post dinner was a shower. Took me some time to figure out you go through hot to get to lukewarm. If I was a country singer, that would be my stage name. “Ladies and Gentlemen, give a warm welcome to Luke Warm”. After figuring it out, the shower was useful. Not clean but I am now. So let’s give it a 4/10.

We had a lovely walk around the campground loop we are in. There are people here from Alberta, Ontario (not just us) and Quebec (not the same one that attempted to steal our spot). There are a few more occupied sites tonight. Mostly at the other side of the loop. Several well above stated capacity. Let’s hope tonight is as serene as last night.

Goal for tomorrow: No driving. Enjoy the warmth and explore the park. Maybe see some of those mammals again. We have not seen a living Armadillo on this trip yet. Just roadkill. Maybe soon?

Captain Renault: What in heaven’s name brought you to Casablanca?
Rick: My health. I came to Casablanca for the waters
Captain Renault: The waters? What waters? We’re in the desert.
Rick: I was misinformed.

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