Suggestions for a 2-3 day solo trip out of the DFW area

[Barracuda]

Just turned in my (very very much needed) time off request for May 14th – 18th. Wife will still be working, so the plan is for me to take a short trip somewhere within reasonable driving distance of DFW for me to unwind/unplug/etc. Plans are to take the camera, one of the bikes, maybe some fishing tackle, leave the computer at home, and get the hell out of Dodge.

First idea was camping, advantages would be price, downside no A/C and mid-May can start getting warm especially consider the spring we’ve been having thus far. Or a small cabin somewhere close to hiking trails, etc. Maybe a 5-6hr drive radius from Dallas? I’d probably head out Monday or Tuesday, stay through Thrus/Friday to take advantage of mid-week pricing and lower traffic in the parks. And still be around town for the weekends for my club bike rides on Saturday.

[fluffybunny]

Hey Cuda, here’s my list:

Davis mountain state park – camping or hotel inside park – long drive to get there – desert hiking – access to McDonald observatory – one of my favorites

Inks lake state park – camping or cabins inside park – short drive – access to colorado bend state park and enchanted rock – hill country hiking

Palo Duro Canyon State Park – only been there once for a few hours, accommodations unknown but I want to go back – long drive – access to “The Texan” steak house

[fluffybunny]

Forgot one,.. Mineral Wells state park – short drive – access to Clark Gardens (botany in spring!) – hiking/mnt biking

[Yoyo]

I like the hill and wine country around Fredricksburg and Johnson City.

[Barracuda]

I’m liking both the Mineral Wells and Hill Country ideas. I could ride the Mineral Wells trails on the fat-tire bike during the day, which is something I’ve been meaning to do.

[chupathingie]

Palo Duro Canyon. It’s about 6 hrs drive from there, 2nd largest canyon in the country, and “muggy” is 30% humidity. And I’ll give you my number in case you need emergency assistance. They have cabins if you don’t want to tent it, plenty of hiking/biking trails (bring a patch kit… goat’s heads and cacti WILL take their toll) and you can be in civilisation in 1/2 hr if you wish, but the town of Canyon is not very big. ~40 minutes away is Amarillo, so if you feel like a cold one and a live band holler and arrangements can be made.

[orionid]

2-3 days should get you to Virginia. As far as the drive back, well…..

[Barracuda]

Semi-settled on the Mineral Wells area. Debating hotel vs camping. Figure I’ll wait a few more days and see what the forecasts are looking like as the week gets closer. Figure I can manage 2 nights, nearly 3 full days out on that side of things should give me enough time to burn through a couple batteries and a memory card or three. Clark Gardens looks great, probably do that the first day, and one of the area state parks, the Mineral Wells trailway the second day with lunch and a walk-about in Weatherford, fishing licence will be good for a few more months so might as well get some use out of that as well at some point. I may (may) take the laptop just to download the memory cards, but if I’m out of town Wed, I’ll most likely need someone to post photos for me that week. The idea is to stay as far away from anything with a lcd screen bigger than a camera.

I’d love to see Virginia, it’s a part of the country I have seen far far too little of. Family vacations growing up always went West from Dallas to the West Coast and such. The eastern sea board is a region I’d love to explore soon.

[chupathingie]

Take the laptop. Unless you’ve got a deck of cards you’re gonna need a data dump. If you’re worried about using it, leave the charger at home (assuming you have a good battery), then you’ll be limited to using it only for storage.

[Yugoboy]

Take the laptop. Unless you’ve got a deck of cards you’re gonna need a data dump. If you’re worried about using it, leave the charger at home (assuming you have a good battery), then you’ll be limited to using it only for storage.

I’m with chupa on this. While I’m sure you’ll be better prepared than I was, a few years ago I took a weekend trip to John Brown’s Farm near Lake Placid. While at the farm my memory card got full (old camera, tiny card), but because I had the laptop, I was able to off-load the pics, re-format the card and continue. This was a lesson I learned while on a cruise. 7-day cruise, and about 2-3 days in, the card had filled up. I had to pay $10 to get the card dumped onto a CD because I had forgotten my laptop’s power cable, and had burned up the batter in an airport.

[Barracuda]

Good points on the laptop. I’ll probably just get a room in Mineral Wells at a hotel or something so I can have A/C. Never know what the hell the texas spring has in store for you by mid-may. May have a companion on the mineral wells trailway trip, another photographer/cyclist I know from bikeforums.net, either way, should be a good trip. 2 nights is the plan, wake up monday drive out that way, spend all of Mon/Tues/most of wed out there, drive home wed night. And then continue my computer free week as much as possible when I get home thurs/fri somehow. Ride my bike/hike around these parts, take a drive in the truck, etc. That’s the plan anyways.

any misspellings the result of rum… lots of rum this evening.

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