Gulf State Park, Gulf Shores, Alabama

Made it to one of our favorite places.  We are at the same campsite we were at last year.   We have mocking birds, butterflies and a couple of stray cats.   Spent the day riding bikes, walking on the beach and just reading.  We are going to be here at least 3 days,  maybe more.  The weather is beautiful, and we have a white sand beach. Here are a few photos.

North Toledo Bend state park

No this park isn't in Ohio,  it is in Louisiana.  Saturday we drove to North Toledo Bend state park and when we drove around to find a campsite, the truck started making strange noises.   We picked our site and paid for it and after we set up I looked for the noise problem.  Sounded like water pump but turned out to be the serpentine belt tensioner pulley.   GM uses a plastic pulley to keep the belt tight.   After 180000 miles on the truck the pulley gave up and melted.  I really did not want to use my towing service to have the truck towed to the nearest GM dealer, 20 miles away on Monday morning probably paying over $200 to have it fixed.   I called   Autozone on Sunday and they made the 40 mile round trip bringing me the pulley and a new belt.  I did the work and saved some money.   This is a beautiful state park,   but very few campers on Saturday night. Sunday night there are 3 campers.   I guess it is because of the dried up reservoir that you can see in one of the photos of cypress trees showing where the water level was at one time.   Also one of the pictures shows the new part and melted old one.

Tyler State Park, East of Dallas, TX

Could not post last night due too very bad signal conditions, blame Verizon.  So to catch up, Wednesday night we stayed at Abilene state park outside of Abilene, TX.   We were in a pecan grove, but no pecans falling.  Usually they hit the roof all night.  Thursday night we stayed at Mineral Wells state park west of  Fort Worth, TX.   In the photos you will see penitentiary hollow where stone steps laid more than 70 years ago wind thru a lakeside labyrinth of giant boulders with stunning views of a 646 acre lake.   Friday we moved on to Tyler state park east of Dallas. All we could get was overflow camping being Friday night.  Beautiful weather, close to 80 degrees.   Hiked trails then settled in for the night.  We are driving less than 150 miles per day as we are in no hurry.   Here are the photos.