Sunday 1-4-26 Camping at Cedar Hill State Park

 

Camping at Cedar Hill State Park

 

The morning temperature was a cool 35 degrees in Belton, TX and the high was 68 degrees. By the end of the day we were in Cedar Hill, TX with the high of 63 degrees.

Larry started the day out by doing his morning routine of reading his e-mail and reading the groups he follows on the internet. I got up about 7:45, which surprised Larry because I usually don't get up until 8:00 or a little after. I made us mini waffles for breakfast. Then we finished loaded the Minnie for our camping trip. 

Before leaving I turned off the ice maker and Larry turned off the water going to the house. He made sure our VR headsets were turned off and anything else that needs to be turned off. I Put the step up on the Minnie and Larry unplugged it. We were on the road by 9:45. We were only going 135 miles to Cedar Hill State Park in Cedar Hill. 

The drive was through Eddy onto I35. It took us through Waco and we exited where it Y'd off for Dallas and Fort Worth. We drove the highway to Cedar Hill and to the park. We were there at 12:30 and wanted to check-in but they won't let us, the lady at the gate said we would have to wait until 2:00. This was the first time we had a state park make us wait until 2:00. We have a State Park Pass so we got a day pass and drove around the park.

Cedar Hill State Park is a big park with 355 developed campsite. All sites have water and electricity and 150 of them have sewer. It's located on Joe Pool Lake, which is a 7,500 acre lake. There are two boat ramps with a lot of parking. There is a swimming beach with grills and picnic tables near by. You can fish in the lake or on the shores. There is a historic site called Penn Farm Agricultural Center. It was where the Penn family lived and worked for over a century. You can do a self-tour of the place. There is hiking/bike trail on 1,200 acres, that is called DORBA Trail, volunteers from the Dallas Off-Road Bike Association take care of the trail. The bikers ride clockwise and hikers hike counter clockwise. The biking area has three different trails, which are Green DORBA short (3.0 miles), Blue DORBA medium (8.0 miles) with cutoffs and Red DORBA long (12 miles). There are other trails within the campground, which are Shoreline (1.0 mile), Penn Farm (.6 mile), Duck Pond (.8 mile) Talala (2.3 miles) and Plum Valley (.8 miles). 

After driving around we went back to the parking lot and had lunch. Then we walked over to the office and checked in. The lady who checked us in was very friendly and helpful. Then we went to our site. The site has a covered picnic table with a slab, fire ring and lantern hook. We set the Minnie up for three nights. By the time we did this it was 2:30.

We walked around our loop, which is Coyote Crossing. We walked for a half hour, which was 1.25 miles. We wanted to get familiar with the campground and to see how far it is to the trailhead from our site, which was .3 mile. It was a very nice walk.

When we got back I made leftovers from last night (sausage patties) for dinner. Afterwards I walked the loop four times, which was 2.25 miles for 47 minutes. Then I stepped in place for fifteen minutes so I could get my 12,000 steps for the day.

 

Sunset on Joe Pool Lake

 
 

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong before I went to bed last night. In the evening I worked on the event, which is a two day event. The event is Event: Solitaire World Tour of 30 games. I worked on the games for 5 hours, 24 minutes and 54 seconds before I realized it was a two day event. I have three more games to complete. Then I played Angry Birds 2. 

We had a super day.