Hico, Texas

Monday November 10…10:00pm

We were up at 7am in order to say thanks and goodbye to Joanne, who was going to work and taking son Jefferey to school at the same time. Don left for work around 8am and was taking daughter Jessica to school on his way.

Ruth and I had showers and got ready to go ourselves. We called Don and Joannes veterinarian to see if they could have a quick look at Whiskey in order to issue an international certificate of health that will hopefully be accepted in whatever Central American countries we happen to visit over the next few months. We got an appointment for 10am, so we had to be quick getting ready. This is all likely a total waste of time and money, because everything we have ever read, heard, or personally experienced says that none of the officials ever ask anything about a dog accompanying you through these border points. But, at least we are now “official” whatever that means.

While Ruth was in getting Whiskey certfied, I spent some time on the internet looking for a suitable overnight spot south of Dallas. We had planned on stopping at Dinasaur Valley State Park, but the weather wasn’t the best and we probably wouldn’t have been able to take advantage of the many trails with fossilized dinasaur footprints. The state parks in Texas are fairly expensive, and they charge a ridiculous “day use” fee in addition to any campground fee. It would have cost about $25 US ($29.50 CAN) to camp there with no services. Instead, I came across a city park in Hico, Texas (pop 1,375) that has about 6 full hook up RV sites available for $10 US ($11.80 CAN).

And so we headed south through Dallas. It’s a bit of a freeway maze, and even with the GPS unit we made one small mistake and turned the wrong way. We only had to exit and re-enter headed in the opposite direction for about a mile, in order to get back on track. The Dallas – Fort Worth metropolitan area is very spread out, and we had travelled about 40 miles (65 km’s) before we started to get out of the built up areas.

Lots of highways converge in Dallas

More highways

Downtown Dallas

When driving on two lane Texas highways, we have learned that there is a kind of unwritten road rule saying that if you are travelling below their 70 mph (113 km/h) speed limit you should move over to the wide paved shoulder in order to let the person behind you pass. We try to drive at 55 mph (90 km/h) or less, so I’ve been doing this, but today the paved shoulder was in fairly bad condition. I hit a few rough patches and as the big truck passed me, I watched in my mirror as our left front wheel cover went rolling across the highway into the ditch on the opposite side. I quickly pulled over to stop and walked back to get it. I didn’t think this wheel cover had been properly installed when they did our balancing job a couple of weeks ago, and I guess I was right.

We made it to Hico, Texas about 2:45pm and found the city park with no problem. We’re the only ones here, so it’ll be a nice peaceful night. The cost is $10, but you have to make your way about ½ mile back to the center of town to the city hall in order to pay for your camping permit. So we walked back after getting set up. Hico (pronounced High-co) is a nice little western town whose claim to fame is that Billy the Kid lived out the last years of his life here. After paying our camping fee, we went to the local Billy the Kid museum. The “official” story is that Billy the Kid died in a gunfight when he was 21 years old in some town in New Mexico. But the Hico story is that Billy the Kid survived that gunfight and settled in Hico until he died in 1950 at the age of 92. After seeing the museum, I’m inclined to believe the Hico story. This was such a big deal, that 60 Minutes even did an episode on this back in the 1990’s. I guess we’ll never know the real story.

A Texas acorn...everything's bigger in Texas...

The Hico jailhouse....now library

Downtown Hico, Texas

Our $10 a night full hook up site in the Hico City Park

Took a few minutes before supper and straightened out our LF wheel cover. Hopefully it stays on this time!

Total nights sleeping in a motorhome…385

November Fuel $ 284.92 CAN

November Grocery $205.38 CAN

November Overnight costs $ 32.80 CAN