Camping Across the South -- Part 4: Texas — Land of Belly-Washers, Meteor Craters, Sand Hills, and What-a-Burger!
Perhaps our most adventurous camping was done while traveling across Texas. Here we experienced both a belly-washer / thunderstorm as well as a sandy wind storm. There was also an opportunity to visit Paris — Paris, Texas.
Mission Tejas
The term “belly-washer” comes from the flash flooding that occurs when cattle are caught outside and the rushing water literally bathes the belly of the herd. And that’s what would have happened to us had we pitched a campsite at the Mission Tejas State Park. “Luckily” we arrived late at night in the rain and decided to NOT pitch our hammocks at the reserved campsite. Rather, we parked near the restroom and slept in our car. The photos below capture the extent of the local flooding.
Both are out-of-this-world!
Somewhere between surviving the belly-washer and higher land, we discovered a meteor crater as well as the opportunity to stop for a good burger.
What do you do when you’re hammock camping and there are no trees? Well that was our challenge when we pulled into the Monahans State Park and Sandhills of Texas. We were the only campers that day sleeping in hammocks (or a tent for that matter). So we lashed ourselves to the so-called “shade shelter” and then “trimmed our sails” (a.k.a., the rain fly). Yes, it rained briefly that night but we slept well and we grilled up some nicely seasoned chicken legs on the charcoal grill found at our camp site.
