Friday, October 19, 2007
Stinnett City Park, Stinnett, TX - Oct 8-10
The city of Stinnett (stin-ETTE) allows RVs to camp for up to 72 hours for free, and that includes water & electricity. Our other option was Lake Meredith NRA, where we could also stay for free, with no hookups. There are a number of campgrounds scattered around Lake Meredith, all described in very flattering terms in our brochure. We decided to check one out and chose Sanford-Yake. We were pretty shocked -- normally NPS/BLM cgs are among our favorites, since they're located in scenic areas. Unfortunately, this was not as true for this cg. The cg overlooks the dam, which is pretty ugly, and all of the real RV sites are what we call "pull-alongs" -- the road widens & you pull over & park & hope your slide-out doesn't get clobbered by passing traffic. We drove back to the Ranger Station hoping they knew of any better cgs, but there was no one to be seen. We gave up & opted for Stinnett City Park instead.We were pretty thankful to have electricity, since highs were in the 80s for our entire stay. When we were setting up, we noticed quite a bit of trash lying around, so Doug decided to pick it up as a way of saying thanks. Unfortunately, that evening a bunch of teens descended on the nearby parking lot, and the next morning there was just as much trash as before. Doug decided that if they didn't care to keep their park clean, he wouldn't either. The gathering of teens turned out to be a nightly occurrence, with much revving of engines & squealing of tires. Fortunately our a/c blocked out a lot of the noise, and they would break up by 11pm, which was 10pm our time (MDT).
We were pleased to discover that nearby Borger had a duplicate bridge club, and they were happy for us to play. This year alone the club lost 5 members to death and 5 more to failing health, with no infusion of younger players to take their place. Sometimes we think ours may be the last generation that plays bridge. The city park in Borger also has a nice free cg, with signs that say no loud noises allowed, so there may not be the teen problem here. They allow 3 nights free out of every 7, so we figure they want you to return often!
We took a "scenic" drive out to Lake Meredith NRA and the surrounding area, which isn't much. We had a picnic lunch at Harbor Bay at a spot that probably used to be right on water's edge, but now offers a nice view of the faraway reservoir. The water level of Lake Meredith has dropped significantly after another dam was built upstream and also due to less rainfall, and the surrounding communities have all suffered. The town of Fritch has an Aquatic and Wildlife Museum that we had to really look for before we finally found it, and then it was sort of embarrassing to walk through, because it took only about 5 minutes. We drove to another cg, this one called Fritch Fortress, which actually was not bad. It offered a nice view of Lake Meredith and had some very attractive sites. It was duly noted for future reference.Our last day we drove out to Alibates Flint Quarries NM, prehistoric quarries of some of the most beautifully colored & highest quality flint found in North America. We had called earlier in the week & understood that a ranger-guided tour was the best way to see the quarries, but were told that we could also visit them on our own. This turned out not to be the case. When we arrived, the "Contact Station" was closed, there were no rangers anywhere, and the road that seemed to lead to the quarries was gated closed. We finally decided what they meant was that you could visit the Visitor Center in Fritch on our own, which we also did.
# posted by Doug and Willie @ 1:23 PM 
