Website of the Forth Worth Botanic Garden

Dog in the car at the vet’s office

As most Americans are very friendly and helpful we decided to stop somewhere for directions. Funnily enough, we stopped at a vet doctor. Paul went inside and asked them for the direction. There were a few people chatting away and at first they did not know what he meant. One of the ladies’ even said:

“I have lived here all my life but I never explored this side of it.”

Isn’t it strange that we often do not explore what is just on our doorstep? We are certainly guilty of that. We probably have seen more of the US then we have seen of places we have lived near to.

Fortunately a man came into the vet’s office and explained to Paul that the whole area is the Lyndon B Johnson Grasslands. You just have to get off highway US 81 and explore. While the man was inside talking to Paul, I got a cute shot of his dogs. It looked as they were driving.

We followed the direction of the man and drove off the highway and into the country roads. We passed by grand ranches and then suddenly found the Black Creek Lake.

At the lake and camping area were deserted with no one else around on this weekday in early June. The only noises we heard were from the nature. When you come off a busy highway and drive into these quiet places in the countryside then they somehow feel a little bit spooky. The plus side of that is that, unlike some other scenic areas, we were not bothered by crowds of people.

As we drove into the parking lot, we carefully read the sign and instruction to use the area. During all our travels in the United States of America, we never came across this kind of way of paying for the entrance or usage area. There was a box with yellow envelopes and another box where you would place the envelope in. Inside the yellow envelope was a recreation pass which you had to hang from the inside mirror facing the windshield. The yellow envelope also had an area where you had to write down the details of your car. So we wrote down the details, added the fee of 2.00 USD into the envelope and then put the envelope inside the box.

It was the perfect spot for a picnic and a little walk along the lake and creek. It was so perfect that we were quite surprised when we realised that it was already 3.00pm. We filmed our short video and quickly hurried down South to Denton. Our schedule was fully packed for that day as we were also attending the first rodeo of the season at Mesquite Rodeo that evening.

Photo of Black Creek Lake at the Lyndon B Johnson National Grassland

Photo at the Black Creek Lake at LBJ National Grasslands

In Denton was our next target, we wanted to visit the CTC Car Ranch in Denton. The drive from Dallas to Denton takes approximately 50 minutes. We left the Interstate 35 and drove to the car ranch. The ranch is located at 3077 Memory Lane. Quite a suitable name for antique cars located at the Memory Lane.

The car ranch was surrounded by a high wire fence and the entrance was through an office which looked like a big garage from the outside and inside.

Inside were the owner and a woman. You could see old car parts and our beloved US number plates.

We paid the entrance fee ($5) and then quickly looked around the grounds. Not only was the car ranch only open for another hour but also we had to hurry before our next stop.

The grounds were very big. One antique American car was placed after another and in the middle of it all we saw a donkey and some cows wandering around and eating grass.

I (Kristin) was clicking away with my camera with a well posing cow. It was standing in the right position to take a photo of it with an open bonnet (hood) of an old car. I stepped to the side to get a better photo angle when I realised that my left foot stepped into some fresh cow pooh. The cow looked at me with an expression of mirth, as if she was laughing inside of herself.

We continued our exploration of the grounds and also found an interesting car which looked like it was shot through many times. We could have spent hours there but the Mesquite Rodeo was beckoning us (and we had already paid for the tickets for it!)

Website of CTC’s Auto Ranch Inc

Entrance fee per person is USD 5.00.

Opening hours: Monday to Friday from 08.30am until 5.30pm
Closed on Saturdays and Sundays.

CTC’s Auto Ranch Inc.
3077 Memory Lane / I-35 North
Denton Tx 76207-4919

CTC Auto Ranch

The end pieces are your idea of what you are looking for but the entire picture has to be unraveled by adding the right pieces to it. Trying one page on the internet after the other, reading one review after another up to the point when you are about to give up.

We were staying for five nights in a hotel in Garland near Dallas, Texas. The prices of accommodation were very good in the Dallas area and this is also the reason why we chose Dallas as our temporary home on our nomadic journey. However, for us the nature and landscape around Dallas was just missing something special. Something that was similar to the raw beauty we had seen in the Grand Canyon or at Monument Valley.

When we were about to give up on our jigsaw puzzle, Paul suddenly found the missing piece to it. The piece brought us to the Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge. The car ride from Garland, TX to the Refuge took us a bit more than an hour.

Visitor Centre at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge

As soon as we had parked at the visitor center, a man who was on his way home approached us. He was wondering how we found it and then he welcomed us to the friendliest place in the nation. In fact, we have never felt as welcomed at any nature reserve or park, as we have felt there. He walked with us into the visitor center.

One of the ladies inside handed him a map and he showed us where we were. We were at Lake Texoma which is located between Texas and Oklahoma. A small portion on the Texan side of Lake Texoma is the Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge. The Refuge is approximately 12,000 acres big of which 8,000 acres are uplands, 2,600 acres are wetlands and 400 acres are croplands. We explained that we were looking to take photos of the wildlife and he said that we should have come a week ago when they had some birds passing through. We just missed it.

However, then he showed us a leaflet of the Haller’s Haven Nature Trail and he said that we should be able to find some birds on this trail. The Refuge itself is open throughout the year from sunrise to sunset (note that the visitor centre has separate opening and closing hours). The visitor centre was very well laid out. You can also borrow binoculars for the day. Although you have to return them before the visitor centre closes. Aside of leaflets and nature information, the centre also had very clean restrooms and a gift shop where Paul bought us a mascot. The mascot is a little squirrel which I (Kristin) named Markus. He had to have this name because I am currently writing a fantasy book where one of the characters is a squirrel named Markus.

The Refuge didn’t charge any entrance fees but visitors can donate money at the visitor centre if they wish to. A short car ride took us to the Goode Day Use Area where the Haller’s Haven Nature Trail started from.  We saw several free parking and picnic spots at the Goode Day Use Area and so we sat down at one of picnic spots to have a late lunch prior to our walk.

When we sat down, the air slowly started to feel like a sauna. We heard some birds tweeting away through the greenery. Understandably, our lunch didn’t take us very long. We could not wait to see the wetlands and to try out our new camera. It is a camera you can place on your head or onto something else to shoot a video. Paul put our new camera on his head and off we went on our way.

We felt very fortunate to have this nature reserve all for ourselves. The Refuge provides a habitat for many types of birds, amphibian and reptiles, fish, mammals and other endangered species.

With all these animals having their home at the Refuge, we were eagerly hoping to see our first animal.  We turned around a corner and saw the picnic pond and inside the pond there was our first animal sitting on a tree inside the pond. It was the bird called Snowy Egret. The picnic pond was so peaceful, little did I (Kristin) know what it had in store for me on our way back…

Steel Bridge at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge

After the picnic pond, we turned left and soon saw the steel bridge just before the Dead Woman’s Pond. The steel bridge fitted perfectly into the Refuge. When you are on the bridge, try to remain silent for a while. Soon you will see all kinds of things going on.

Paul saw a turtle on the right underneath the bridge just before the waterfall and later on we saw very big fish swimming down the waterfall and then kind of jumped back up the waterfall.

Fish at waterfall at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge

It seemed very peculiar to see them jumping up the waterfall. After we passed the bridge, we saw on our right the Dead Woman’s Pond and on our left was Lake Texoma. On our walk various birds were flying across us. We had to be careful not to step into several mountains of ants. We walked a bit further just before the 2.7miles round-trip started.  As our skin began to feel sticky from the sauna and we did not see any other wildlife up there, we did not take the 2.7miles round-trip. We turned around and spent a little longer at the bridge, the Lake and the Dead Woman’s Pond. We took a few shots of some animals and then headed back to the Goode Day Use Area. Just before the Picnic Pond, we met a turtle (same as cover picture) along the way. Turtles are kind of nomads like us because they carry their home with them.

As always, I (Kristin) was a bit behind because I just had to take another picture. Paul had already passed the picnic pond and was way ahead while I was following behind. I walked along the path, dreaming away for my next shot when I suddenly saw something swimming through the pond. It lifted itself up and “Ahhhhhhh” I shouted and ran as fast as possible. The last time I ran so fast was when I was a little girl when I had said something naughty to an older girl and she was chasing me.

A western cottonmouth (also called water moccasin) snake had smiled right at me. The western cottonmouth is a very dangerous snake. Luckily a few days earlier we met a former marine at the Spring Creek Forest Park Preserve in Garland. We saw the same snake swimming up the creek and he told that they are very vicious. You can tell if a snake means business when it has 2/3rds of its body out of the water.

Big turtles actually like to eat snakes so when you see big turtles then it is a bit safer. Paul was just laughing away. It reminded him when he was with his brother at the Joshua Tree National Park and his brother was chased by a diamond back snake.

Bird with nodding donkeys in the backround.

After this little shock, we were certainly ready for our air-conditioned car. Besides the Haller’s Haven Nature Trail, you can do three other hiking trails. You can even go on a boat or use a bike in some areas.

From the Haller’s Haven Nature Trail we drove down the road and took the wildlife drive. We stopped at several points including a very good photo viewing blind.

On the drive we saw big fields with nodding donkeys in them which are used to extract oil from the lands at the Refuge.

Red-winged Blackbird

We also passed by Snowy Egrets, Male and Female Mallards, Turkey Vultures, Red-Winged Blackbirds and Scissor-Tailed Flycatchers.

Scissor-Tailed Flycatchers

The Scissor-Tailed Flycatchers were very hard to photograph. They flew so fast, it was unbelievable. Luckily I got a good shot of one of them. While I was trying to catch a shot of the Scissor-Tailed Flycatchers, another car was  waiting for me to take the picture. The car actually stopped right where I was  standing. Inside the car was a couple.

“These birds are my mum’s favourite birds” said the man in the car. He paused a moment and corrected himself “They were my mum’s favourite birds.”

Address of the visitor centre: Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge, 6465 Refuge Road, Sherman, TX 75092, USA

Website of Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge

View Larger Map

The journey of 1,630 miles (just over 2,600 km) was very long so we overnighted at a few places on our way to break the journey. We also made the distance greater than this by, at times, deliberately selecting the avoid highway option on our Garmin Sat Nav system. That way we could see the more picturesque and characterful sights that the main Interstate routes just do not provide but the County Roads and smaller highways do.

Bikers at the Panama City Beach Motorcycle Rally

Our first stop was on May 3rd in St. Augustine, FL. When we had planned our journey previously, the stop there seemed quite promising, however, the weather was not in our favour and so we had to postpone an exploration to a future visit (hopefully). The next day, on May the 4th we drove to Panama City Beach, FL. Panama City Beach, FL was packed with bikers as the Panama City Beach Motorcycle Rally was in town.

Biker at the Rally

Seeing all these bikes was pretty cool. Somehow the sound of their bikes reminded us of the sound from the alligators we heard earlier that week, apparently looking for mates.

Our last stop before Dallas was in Baton Rouge, LA and by this time we were really tired of all the driving. Definitely have to remember this when we plan our future travels. We did not really see anything in Baton Rouge, LA and headed on May the 6th to Dallas. After a long journey, we finally got there and we stayed for one night at a hotel near the University Park in North Dallas. The next day, we checked for two weeks into a hotel in Addison. The lady at check in greeted us and right away apologised for the traffic in Dallas. It turned out that she was right. The driving conditions in Dallas can be pretty bad.

Addison is a city 14 miles north of downtown Dallas. It was the perfect spot for us to get back into a more “normal” day-to-day life. The area seemed very safe and with more than 170 restaurants nearby, we had plenty to choose from.  Luckily our stay was at the same time when the “Taste Addison” food festival was in town. Around 70 restaurants presented their food there. The restaurants offered a small selection of their food. Instead of having big meals, one could purchase a small portion and therefore get a taste from different restaurants all at the same time. We visited the “Taste Addison” on Friday and Saturday. On Friday, we mainly were there to see the two bands called Reckless Kelly and Turnpike Troubadours. Both bands were pretty good. Paul preferred Reckless Kelly and I (Kristin) preferred the Turnpike Troubadours. I felt that the Turnpike Troubadours just had a bit more energy about them. Unbelievably good and both bands were more than worth the entrance fee of 15 dollars.

On Saturday, we mainly visited the festival to taste the food and to have a look around the rest of the festival area.

Paul really wanted me to go on a ride at the fun fair but I was just too chicken to get on them!

The festival also had a number of stalls offering all kinds of things from photos to jewellery. We even saw a stall which sold used German beer mugs.  After we had a look around the stalls we saw a little crowd at the kids’ stage so we headed there and enjoyed the presentation from a professional animal handler who was putting on an animal edutainment show. The show was very good and we preferred this to the bands which were on stage on Saturday. The presenter showed us lizards, snakes and even a fennec fox.

The “Taste Addison” was very good although we wished that they would have offered a festival pass for all three days rather than charging separately for each day and by time of day.  The “Taste Addison” is usually held in May.

City of Addison website

Addison Airport