Traveling with the Longdogs: Seeing the Sights in San Angelo TX

We left Palo Duro Canyon on Wednesday morning about 9:30AM. We made it up that long 10% grade road with no problems as we lucked out and didn't meet any RVs on their way in. I have to say that a couple of those convex mirrors you see in some blind spots would be very helpful on a couple of those blind curves. There is always some hotshot that thinks he has to see how fast he can get up or down the road without regard for who he might meet on a blind corner.

Anyway, we were headed south to San Angelo Texas. We lived there in the 70s when we returned from Japan. We have been back to visit but it's been a while.

We rolled into the Goodfellow AFB Famcamp about 5PM. The office was closed but the camphost saw our RV and came out to meet us in his little golf car. The trees have grown up quite nicely in this area since it was built. Unfortunately, that area was all full and we were put in a site in a new area that has all the hookups and nothing else. It definitely needs some landscaping to make it more attractive but we were happy to have a site with electric for the A/C because it was hot. The showers were great with lots of hot water. There is a Laundromat, boat rentals, etc. There is also a nice swimming pool. Since the office is closed Tuesday and Wednesday, we figured the pool would be open on Thursday. No.....and no real explanation either. It was kind of sad to see that these nice sites were indeed occupied......by RVs but only a couple actually had people in them. People are allowed to reserve them for up to 90 days so they come out and park their RVs for the summer and maybe show up on the weekends. I guess the base gets it's money but it sure isn't very camper friendly.

Thursday morning we drove into town, just a couple of miles away. San Angelo has worked hard on their riverwalk. While completely different from the riverwalk in San Antonio, it is very nice. There is a path going along it for a number of miles and rocks and stone have been used to beautify the river edges.

San Angelo has grown since we lived there. We had a KMart back then which closed after we left but by then they had a small mall. They are working on making the downtown area close to the river a more tourist attracting area. Goodfellow AFB is a big anchor for the town. They don't have a runway there but the base is the site of a lot of different kinds of training missions. We visited the Visitor's Center near the river which is quite nice and staffed by very friendly and helpful people.

These lovely statures "Los Dos Angelos" are just below the Visitor's Center.

The grandkids really enjoyed seeing all the decorated sheep. This is definitely sheep country and you will find uniquely painted sheep all over town.

We drove through the base just to check it out. It's small but nice. Then we drove through the old neighborhood where we lived back in the 70s. It has definitely deteriorated. Then it was back to the Famcamp. The kids were disappointed that the pool wasn't open but there is a public beach across the road next to a small marina. They also had a nature center there which is supposed to be great for kids but we were out of time.