Once we made the decision to pull out of San Angelo State Park, we were packed and ready to hit the road in short order. We pulled out at 10:30am. Our destination was Buchanan Dam where my friend Dave Glynn has a vacation home and property on the lake.

Our route took us along US87 to Brady. On the way there, Donna monitored the weather with the Radar Express app on my phone. She was tracking a storm cell as it hit Brady. We stopped at a rest area west of Brady and stretched our legs for 10 minutes to give the storm time to pass northeast of our travel route. This worked perfectly as we only found wet roads and light rainfall on the route.

From Brady we hit TX71, a lightly used route that took us through the hill country. San Angelo is located in high desert terrain. The landscape changed as we traveled east. The Texas hill country is wooded with meadows full of poppies and other wildflowers, of course, it’s hilly. Donna shot a few photos through her window as we drove along the highway.

Donna’s window view of poppies

We found our way to Dave’s driveway. There was a low tree branch Dave told me about that was blocking us from pulling in past the house. I removed the branch (Dave told me I’d be doing him a favor). Getting the coach turned around and lined up next to the house was really tricky. We had obstacles such as trees, flower beds and bushes to maneuver around.

It took a full 30 minutes of jockeying the coach back and forth a few feet at a time to get it lined up right. The Allison automatic transmission didn’t like all the maneuvering at idle speed. The transmission fluid temperature rose to 220 degrees – that’s the highest I’ve ever seen it. I finally had the coach parked on the east side of the house with our door lined up with a walkway to the patio. The house should offer us some protection against the wind as severe storms are in the forecast.

Coach positioned next to Dave’s beach house

The house should offer protection from the storms

Donna and I sat on the deck overlooking the lake and sipped cold beer. Donna phoned her parents and wished her mom a happy Mother’s Day. While she was on the phone, I took a walk down to a pier a few hundred feet from Dave’s property.

There’s been a long period of drought in Texas (like most of the southwest). At San Angelo State Park, the lake no longer exists. Here at Buchanan Lake, the water level has dropped considerably. The pier sits high and dry a few hundred yards from the current shoreline.

Fishing pier

End of the pier well short of the shoreline

The pier is at the foot of a small community park, which I believe is common property owned by a homeowners’ association. Some of the homes here had private docks which are no longer in the lake. The receding lake has left many of the lakefront properties up to a quarter mile away from the lake. That has reset the property values to a much lower level. This coupled with the financial crisis during the last decade left many homeowners here in a bind.

Sunday was the last day of our data plan cycle. I had a few gigabytes to spare so I downloaded the European coverage of the Formula One race from Spain. While I was watching the race, Donna hiked on the trails along the lake. She snapped a few interesting photos on her walk.

Inlet off the lake west of Dave’s place

More wildflowers near the lake

Unmanned fishing poles

We watched a recorded program before we went to bed. I was tired and fell asleep quickly. I woke up around midnight as another storm came through. It wasn’t too severe – a few flashes of lightning and raindrops falling on the roof.

This morning, another storm cell is passing through as I type this – lightning struck close by on the lake. The flash of lightning was immediately followed by a loud clap of thunder. The storm is moving quickly to the northeast. It looks like a few more storm cells are lined up to head our way today.