Day 20: McKinney State Park, Austin, TX: Clean, fresh and well rinsed

Hey forecasters, you might need to do a better job! We had a nice sleep. There was overnight rain as expected. We had all of the rain sensitive stuff put away indoors.

This park has some really good trails. Our campsite has an unofficial path to the Onion Creek trail. It was misting but I opted to not bring a jacket and wore a t-shirt and shorts as it was 14C. Trail was a nice 4.4 km loop with plenty of stuff to see. Apparently it is a thing here in Texas to lay your baby in the Blue Bonnet flowers and take pictures. I resisted the tradition and did not lay down in the flowers in the birthday suit and take a picture. Honestly. I assume this would not happen if roses were the state flower of Texas.

After Breakfast we packed up and headed to the Laundromat. We did not get killed and we got clean clothes. Pretty good outing. I did walk over to Sonic for some Chilli Cheese Tater Tots during the dry cycle. You can walk up and order at Sonic without a car. We were parked next to a car that was full of crap metal with a big emphasis on cans. Mrs Milddogs contributed our empty cans to the cause. We did not get killed for that either. Our timing was pretty good for the laundry as counter to the forecast, it rained all morning.

Upon return we decided to walk around and see sites with friends. It was supposed to stop raining. So we left in a light mist. We went to the upper falls, the big old tree and the prehistoric shelter. Apparently there are 3 state campgrounds with famous old trees in Texas and we have seen two of them. Amazing that we sapiens have let some trees live that long.

Our walk was just a tad over 3km and by the time we were about 2km in, the rain was pretty steady. Amy was getting soaked. I think she just wanted to get home at that point. Fifty percent of us brought real rain coats, 25% of us (me) brought a light windbreaker. We were pretty wet by the end but it was a really nice walk to share with good friends.

When we got back we spent the better part of a few hours getting all cleaned up. We had to bathe Amy from the hips down. We turned the heat up in the van to create a dry sauna and vented out the windows and fans hoping to dry out some of this stuff on a very wet, but not cold (yay!) day.

We had a visit outside when a fellow Travato owner came over and said hi. We chatted with her for some minutes and she gave us some good tips on must visit parks and sites. She really recommended Garner River. The Garner River recommendation count is now 188.

I forgot to mention that when we left Buc-Ees yesterday, there was another couple in a camper van next to us at the stop light. We both undid our shirts…oh, wait, wrong blog, our windows and had a chat for about 60 seconds. It was a fun moment even if it involved talking to strangers.

Dinner was chicken chalupas by Mrs Milddogs. There are plenty of cool Austin things we should have done but weather was not on our side.

Pro tip, you can order Dominos Pizza to this campground

Post dinner we played some cards over in our friend’s van. Unlike last night, I did not win today.

You are probably waiting for a shower review. Zero. Showers here are pretty old school. There is a washroom and in the washroom there is shower curtain “A”. Behind shower curtain “A” is a naked person or two or three. One of them could be you. Then, behind shower curtain “B” is your own tiny shower stall. I’m fine for the occasional bout of naked, but prefer it on my terms, like in the Blue Bonnet fields. I did not use them. Hoping for something better in Abilene. Don’t want to dirty up all of these clean clothes.

Dang banana hammock gave out. There we were bragging about the strength and lasting power of the overloaded 3M command strip and hours later it let go. We have replaced it with an Ikea “StickenNotFallenOOF” suction cup mount. Fingers crossed.

Tomorrow we venture north and our friends head west. West is better than north but we are running out of time on this trip.

Please weather, be kind to us!