Lake Whitney, Texas - April 5th and 6th, 2024
For the Total Solar Eclipse in 2024, we took a one week trip to Texas to view it. Our destination in Texas was Lofers Bend West Campground on Lake Whitney, near Waco. Lake Whitney is a dammed portion of the Brazos River, the same river that passes through Waco. There are several campgrounds on the lake, including a state park, but we chose Lofers Bend West, run by the Army Corps Of Engineers. This post covers our exploration of Lofers Bend.
Friday was our longest drive of the trip, so we got an early start. We were pulling out of our camp site at Caprock Canyons State Park before 8:30 am. First we planned to stop about two hours later for gas and restrooms, until we noticed that we were running low on gas. There was a strong head wind which was decreasing our gas mileage. We had just passed a gas station when we noticed. The next gas station that Google Maps indicated along our route was going to be a stretch with what we had left in our tank. About half way there, we saw a co-op gas station, unmanned, in the little town of Jayton. There were no signs indicating that any type of membership was required, so we stopped to put some gas in our tank. That made us feel better. Running out of gas would have put a definite wrinkle in our trip. We stopped again in Aspermont to fill our tank the rest of the way.
While we were on a short stretch of I-20, we stopped at a rest area for a picnic lunch. It was nice to have a clean bathroom to use instead of using Red Tail’s (our Winnebago EKKO). Sitting outside at a picnic table was nice, except for the loud highway traffic going by.
The only other stop we made was another gas station in Dublin. On the way into town, we passed a billboard advertising Dublin Craft Soda. That sounded interesting. We’re always up for trying something new. As luck would have it, the gas station convenience store carried quite a few different flavors of the local soda. OK, we guess that is not very surprising. We picked out four flavors, root beer, vanilla cream, red cream, and ginger ale. Two of them we drank right away, saving the other two for dinner. They all were pretty tasty, not overly sweet, which is just how we like it. The vanilla cream and red cream reminded Ann of her childhood. Ann’s mom would sometimes buy a bunch of different flavors of Faygo pop for a treat. One of Ann’s favorite’s was Red Pop. It is similar to the Cheerwine we had in North Carolina a couple of years ago.
About half way through our drive for the day, we started noticing all of the bluebonnets lining the highway. Bluebonnet season was in full swing. Texas Hill Country is known for its bluebonnet flowers. In addition to the bluebonnets, there were also other wildflowers in bloom, adding orange, red, yellow, pink, purple, and white colors to the blue. Every now and then, we would pass a field full of wildflowers.
We made pretty good time and arrived at Lofers Bend West Campground before 4 pm. It was a struggle to level Red Tail in our site. Most of the other sites in our loop didn’t look much better. The best we could do was have the front tires about seven or eight inches too low. So, in addition to the four inches from our GoTreads, we placed our 2x6’s under them as well. We had done this once before and didn’t feel comfortable with it. This time we put the 2x6’s perpendicular to the GoTreads, using two of them under each one. That seemed a little more stable. We still weren’t level, but close enough. Nothing in our rig requires us to be perfectly level.
It was 90 degrees so we decided to plug in and test out our air conditioner. This trip had been a great shakedown trip. We used the furnace the first night and now the AC on our third night. It was then we realized that our electrical cord was just barely long enough to reach the electrical pedestal. There was no way we were moving Red Tail, so we just made it work. Hopefully, there isn’t too much tension on the cord as it is hanging in the air, stretched out pretty tight.
To get some exercise in after our long drive, we walked part of the campground for about an hour, covering a couple of miles. The bluebonnets were everywhere. A couple of large patches of bluebonnets were visible from inside Red Tail. We walked three of the campground loops before returning to our camp site to make dinner. At the end of each loop was a nice view of Lake Whitney.
The tent sites in one of the loops had a little shelter for each site. At first we thought they were cabins, but they were just a large room with nothing inside them. The stone shelter had window openings, half of which were covered with screens and the other half of the windows had wooden slots. They would be great place for campers to get out of the wind and away from the bugs.
For dinner, we pulled out the Blackstone griddle (paid link) and made tortilla pizzas. The tortillas were a little small, so we made four of them instead of our usual two. All four fit perfectly on the griddle. There is no way we could have made all four of them at the same time if we were cooking inside on the stove top or the induction cooktop. The pizzas paired perfectly with our Dublin Craft Soda.
As the temperatures cooled down, we turned off the AC and unplugged from the pedestal. Then we just had to deal with the insects. A few made their way into Red Tail, so we turned on our bug zappers and our essential oil diffuser.
Saturday we hung out at Lofers Bend. Originally, Ann planned to go for a drive and hike, in search of bluebonnets. But the bluebonnets were so plentiful that driving somewhere to see them wasn’t necessary. Besides, we didn’t want to have to level Red Tail again when we got back.
Instead, we relaxed, worked on blog posts, and worked on finishing preparing Red Tail for the coming traveling season. We charged the NOCO battery jumper (paid link), pumped up our e-bike tires, lubricated the bike chains, sprockets, and detailers. Keith lubricated all the compartment door locks along with the entry steps. One of the propane tank sensors (paid link) was reading wrong. It was reporting that it was a different type of sensor and showing 0% full on the tank we had just filled. Keith popped the battery out and put it back in. That seemed to reset the sensor and it started working properly again.
We walked the rest of the campground. The lower section, near the boat ramp, was more occupied than our loop up higher. The sites also looked more level than the ones in our loop. Some of them were even paved instead of gravel. That was probably why, along with being closer to the water, that most of the people were camping in that section of the campground. Ann made our reservation back in early October, so she doesn’t know why she picked our site. Perhaps it was the only one available or she wanted one near the entrance to make it more convenient to come and go.
During one of our campground walks, we noticed a couple of short paths from our campground loop down to the water. The water there was a small, calm inlet. It looked like a perfect little inlet to explore in a kayak or on a paddle board. Ann considered getting her paddle board out, but it was a little cooler and a whole lot more windy on Saturday than the day before. The strong, gusty winds were creating white caps on Lake Whitney. She decided to pass on the paddling this time.
Lofers Bend West turned out to be a pleasant surprise. We weren’t expecting to spend much time at the campground, since there weren’t any hiking trails, but the campground was large enough to keep us occupied for two days, especially with all of the blooming flowers.
Check out our related video: Lake Whitney, Texas
(Ann)