I kept thinking we were coming to Albany State Park in Texas because I remembered it was the name of a city you associate with a different state and since everything in my mind is about NY, I kept remembering it wrong. But here we are in Atlanta, Texas.
The weather here has be so beautiful since we arrived on Sunday. Today is Wednesday and it will rain tomorrow so while the sun is out and the sky is pretty the humidity is stifling. We are leaving early tomorrow, so not sure if we will experience rain here, but I bet we have another rainy drive. We will see. So far, we have had 8 days of rain with only 7 days left of travel and the lowest number of rain days guessed is 12. Not sure if anyone will win this contest, but I guess it is possible. We do need 4 days of rain in 7 days. https://twooldfartsandadog.org/rain-rain-go-away-not-really/
Some observations about Texas. We have driven through 38 states on all our trips. No other state displays the state flag like Texas. We have seen a lot of Confederate flags on our travels, American flags, Trump flags, but the only state flags we see are at the state parks. Not in Texas. Almost every home that flies the American flag also has the Texas state flag flying too. Campgrounds whether state parks or KOA’s have the Texas flag flying. I think it is part of the Remember the Alamo sentiment. They also like to recognize towns for things. Hopkins, Texas is the Pancake State Capital. I thought this was an undeserved recognition since I did not see one pancake house in the whole 6 street town. Texas also has the most historic road markers I have seen in any state. I love to stop at them, but alas, I have a driver that gives a hard no to any suggestion of stopping. I have FOMO about these markers. I am always so sad as I watch the marker disappear in the side view mirror till, I can no longer see the turn off. Texas has found a wonderful solution for couples like us. They have numbered each marker and display the number about a half mile before you pass it. They are also consecutively numbered so if you are on Highway 59, like we were on Sunday and see marker 11228, you know the next will be 11229 and so on. You can open the page in the app and read to your driver what the marker was about and be ready with the next one as it comes up. Sadly, the driver was not amused. https://www.thc.texas.gov/preserve/projects-and-programs/state-historical-markers
In line with what could break next, our air fryer completely fell apart today. It is the type with a basket and I love it. I pulled the handle on the basket and the whole front came off but the basket did not slide out. I hope we can fix it because I use it a lot. When you drive your home around 6,200 miles it tends to shake a lot. I think the screws just shook out, not sure if the holes are stripped but we will see. The step that came loose was fixed but the screws came out again.
We have again been relaxing at the stop, taking a few short hikes and I have been catching up on work and knitting. The park has a bit of history around it, there are 3 foot ruts in the road from stage coach routes. There are also some bandits who hid out here. Here are some pictures of where we are staying.
We have changed our main meal to lunch time since it gets dark here about 5 – 5:30 pm and we like to Yesterday, I said I was going in and Jerry said yes it must be at least 8pm, it was 5:50. Tomorrow, we go to Hot Springs, AK and then we leave there on Monday and drive two days to get home. 2020 and 2021 I spent my birthday in Sedona, this year my birthday will be spent driving 6 hours, but I never would have imagined I would be traveling the country as I age.