Friday, November 21, 2014

Purtis Creek State Park, Texas

As I drive, I do pass some interesting things along the way.

In Pennsylvania (I think), I passed a mini book cabinet near a park. I had finished one of my books, I believe it was Ordinary People, and left it for someone to borrow. Neat idea :)

In Florida, I passed a giant pirate ship :).


In Louisiana, I passed the exit for Lena.  I took the exit, but I'm not really sure where the 'town' is at.  I found a Lena road but there were just a couple houses on it.  I gave up quickly and was back on the highway.


With the storms past now, the days were beautiful again.  I was headed to a state park in Texas, just outside of Dallas.  Again, being during the week, the park was pretty much empty.  For those from my home town, I think it was a lot like Shabbona State Park - man made lake, campsites, fishing, etc. The first day I hiked around on the trails and made some mac and cheese for dinner.  I did run into a snafu when my waterproof matches would not work to light my stove.  Always have three ways to make a fire - ideally, lighter, matches and flint.  I only had the matches and they would just not work. So I quick drove into town (well to an intersection with gas stations about 8 miles away) and grabbed a lighter.  All was good.

The next morning the wind died down and I rented a kayak to explore around the lake.  It should be called Turtle Lake - there were so many turtles!! You could tell it was a man made lake, filled in over a bunch of trees - there were branches everywhere, sticking out of the water and some just beneath the surface that I had to watch out for so as to not get my kayak caught.  As I got closer to the branches, I found the turtles were hanging out on all of them, sunning themselves.  Then when I got too close, plop! They slid back into the water.  It was fun to see how close I could get to them.  I saw some more big cranes and vultures as well.  After my couple hours, I packed up for the day and headed towards Dallas Forth Worth to see my friends, Sara and Sean.  They have a new little guy who's just about one and I haven't met yet.
The lake


You can't see them well, but there were deer at the playground :)


The reflection in the lake - the stillness of the morning


Also hard to see, but that's the outstretched neck of a turtle :)



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