We left Amarillo at 7:30 a.m. on Thursday, April 21 as it was going to be a long drive to Denison. We made the 356-mile drive in about 6 hours, after stopping at a truck stop to stretch and have a bathroom break. Our reservations are at the Eisenhower State Park in Denison, which is about 15 minutes from my life-long friend Debi Humphries and her husband Terry’s home. They retired and moved to Texas last year. When looking up the address to Eisenhower State Park I realized I had made the reservation for Friday and not Thursday. I called and the park and the site I reserved was not available until Friday, but no worries, Deb and Terry had a nice long driveway and we “mooch docked” with them on Thursday. It ended up being great and we had a nice visit and went to a great rib place in Denison for dinner.
On Friday morning Tom and I headed over to a local RV dealer named RV Station to see if one of their technicians could hook up the electricity to the tongue jack, and to take a look at the trailer door that keeps sticking. We pulled in and the service was phenomenal. Within a few minutes a technician was working on the electrical and then between the three of us discovered that when we put the code in to unlock the door it is only unlocking the top portion and not the deadbolt. I’ll just use a key, really, it’s not a problem!
With the tongue jack working and the door issue resolved, we headed to Eisenhower State Park and checked into our spot. This is a beautiful park, and the cost was only $30 per night! We set up camp and headed back to Debi and Terry’s as there was plenty of daylight left and Terry has a shooting range on the back of his property. While Tom and Terry were shooting, Deb and I headed out on a tour of Denison and the surrounding area. Fun fact: Dwight D. Eisenhower was born in Denison, Texas and his birthplace is an historical spot, needless to say we visited that on Sunday. Dinner on Friday was Subway and Debi made margaritas, and we played a new card game called 5-Crowns. By 11:00 pm Tom and I decided to head “home”. Let me say this about Texas roads at night – THEY ARE REALLY DARK! Although I was super happy about having GPS on the truck, finding the right street with no light was still a challenge. We made it back to Eisenhower Sate Park and went to bed.
Saturday morning we got up early because Tom had an 8:30 appointment to get the oil changed on the truck, we learned that in Texas that is pronounced “oll change”. We got there at 8:15 and waited until 11:00! At least we got a truck wash out of the deal!
Debi had made plans for us to go to Ft. Worth to the Stockyard and a rodeo on Saturday. We left for Ft. Worth around 12:00 noon and on the way to Ft. Worth we stopped at Buc-ees, which is basically as travel stop and fuel station but also a destination for everything “Texas”. It’s 1 1/2-hour drive from Denison to Ft. Worth and I really didn’t know what to expect at the Stockyard, except we were also going to a rodeo. When you don’t really know what to expect it often turs out the best. We saw long horn cows come down the main street, shopped at some cute shops and had a great steak dinner at Riscky’s Steakhouse before heading over to the rodeo. It was a great day in Ft. Worth. We decided to sleep in on Sunday morning and meet Deb and Terry at the President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s birthplace. We took a tour and some photos and learned about the area when President Eisenhower’s family lived there for a while. After that we said goodbye to Deb and Terry and headed back to the trailer, a strong thunderstorm was forecast, and they weren’t kidding. Texas definitely does everything big – even their thunderstorms! We packed up on Monday morning and headed to Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Enjoy some pictures of Deb and Terry’s home, our trip to the Stockyards and the Eisenhower birthplace!
Tom and Patti's RV Adventure 