We're on the road again--heading south to warmer weather!

Ever since we started traveling full-time, we've parked the motor home so we could spend the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays with family. This year we were parked longer than usual, as we got to welcome a new grandson the month before. So after an unusually long vacation from vacationing, we are finally back on the road again. We had a perfect day for our first day of travel--sunny skies and no wind. We're officially heading south in search of warmer weather.

We crossed the state line into Texas, where we'll be staying for most of the winter. Mark was trying very hard to "drive friendly the Texas way" as the welcome-to-Texas sign suggested. 

We're a big fan of Texas State Parks, and we've visited many during the last six years. Our plan is to stay at many new-to-us Texas State Parks on this trip south. One of the reasons we are such big fans, is the nice big camp sites. Another reason is the good price on these sites. Since we already have an annual Texas park pass, we have free admission to every park in the state. We also get half-price camping the second night after paying full price the first. That averages to $16.50 per night for this two night stay.

You know you are in Texas when there is an oil pump jack in the middle of the campground.

We had cool weather for a morning hike on this trail situated high on the ridge among the mesquite trees. That's probably why they named this the Mesquite Ridge Trail. 

But when we headed down off the ridge, we kept finding long sections of the trail under water. This area also received lots of snow last week.

We had to make some wide squishy circles around those flooded areas, but we still managed to complete our six-mile hike today. It sure feels good to be back on the trail!

Our wildlife picture of the day was taken right on a flooded section of the trail. This heron was actually wading on our trail, right in front of a flooded tunnel that we were supposed to go through.

We wish we could have been like that heron, and simply flown over the water to a drier part of the trail!

This first stop is at Lake Arrowhead State Park, and Mark is standing on the lake pier for sunset.

The water was as still as glass as we watched the sun set across the lake.

Denisa is looking very angelic with a halo circling her head this evening! It's a very nice place to be and we're both very happy to be on the road again, wandering God's wonders!