Abeline State Park, Texas
December 22, 2019
This morning I left the busyness of Fort Worth and headed toward West Texas. I left in a fog (the weather, not me) with a temperature of 44 degrees. I’m pleased to report it is blue skies and 67 degrees in Abeline.
I kept this drive shorter than recent ones and my body is thanking me. Less time in the car but you can cover a lot of miles when the speed limit is 75 mph.
Like many of my drives in Texas, this leg included some great photo opportunities.
First up was White Settlement, Texas. No typo. The town was named by the local Indian tribes because it was where the white people lived. The town of 16,000 voted in a referendum in 2005 to consider changing the name, but it was voted down by 10 to 1. Your reaction might have been like my initial reaction - what an awful name. But as I thought about it, the more I thought, those are my biases showing through. White Settlement has a history, it’s home to a lot of people. Who am I to judge? Taking a page from “Mindless,“ (earlier post) I believe I have no place to comment unless I talk to people who live there to get their perspective. You might disagree with me, and I understand.
My next stop was less controversial - Cool, Texas. What an awesome name!
After Cool, the topography of the area I was driving through began to change. It was still flat but with elevation changes every few miles giving me an elevated view of the horizon. My weather app said visibility was 10 miles but I thought “I could see for miles and miles.” I was expecting to see sand and tumbleweed. Instead there were trees on the hills - small fur trees - and grass, pasture land. I assume the trees are stunted because of the winds In West Texas.
The distance between towns still amazes me. Twenty miles of nothing is ”close” and much more seemed to be the average.
Came to a town of Breckenridge (I was still in Texas, not Colorado) which was a neat town with great murals. The folks at the CVS there were very helpful in filling a prescription for me.
And the mascot for the Breckenridge High School?
It was not until about 20 miles west of Breckenridge that I saw my first wind farm of the day. Later I saw others before and around Abeline. I suspect I will see many more as I continue through West Texas. When leaving Fort Worth, I saw three oversized trucks each carrying one wind turbine blade. It was very cool. I knew they were long but I was surprised by the con cavity of them. Something to research!
I hope you enjoy these photos. I broke out a very wide angle lens today; I will post those photos soon.
