Our Summer in Red River
In spring of 2018 we were invited by a friend and fellow Bluebird owner Mike to stay at his cabin for the summer. It was an awesome offer, plus there was room for our bus. In June we spent a couple weeks in Norman, Oklahoma with Jen’s brother and so the plan was to make the trip from Norman with one overnight on the way to Red River. After a bit of delay for bus maintenance and sightseeing around Amarillo including "Cadillac Ranch" and Jack Sisemore RV Museum, we made it to Red River on June 27, 2018. This place is wonderful, and our friends/hosts were awesome.
One of the first things our hosts took us to was Bobcat Pass Wilderness Adventures where Jen and Mike went on a horseback ride into the mountain pass. The ride was guided though some private land in the mountains that had breathtaking views. When we arrived in Red River all the public forest land and campgrounds were closed due to an extreme fire danger. Due to this the horseback ride was only allowed to use private lands, which ended up allowing them to see areas they would not have seen otherwise. After the horseback ride Matt joined Jen and Mike for the Moreno Valley Cowboy Evening which is held at the top of Bobcat Pass just outside Red River. This was the 27th annual summer of this event.
The event was a chuck wagon dinner which was steak, baked potato, corn on the cob, ranch beans and then cowboy coffee and giant cinnamon rolls for dessert. We suggest if you are going to do this don’t eat that day at all. The food was some of the best we have had. While eating we were treated to live music by Syd Masters, who was very entertaining. We both would highly recommend going to this if you find yourself in this area during the summer. We have attached the link so you can check out their website if you are interested.
A few weeks after that we got to spend the 4th of July downtown, and witness the massive parade, and a small town absolutely full of people. We also hung out and listened to live music during the Michael Martin Murphy American West Fest. This was held at the local Brandenburg Park in downtown Red River. It is a full weekend event with live music held in the park all weekend plus vendors and entertainers throughout town. We attended one day of the event and listened to the singers and songwriters who performed all day into the early evening. It wasn’t all play though, we also did projects for our friends which helped both of us. Shortly after the 4th we started getting afternoon rains, which was a great relief because it has been very dry here.
Once it rained enough they reopened the forest, and we got to take the four wheelers out on some of the mountain trails.
In August we went to Larry Joe Taylor’s Hot Chili Days, Cool Mountain Nights cook off and music festival. This festival had great entertainers all weekend and at some of the local pubs into the late evening. We thoroughly enjoyed this festival as well. Great entertainment and the people were very relaxed and friendly. The cool mountain air here is wonderful especially knowing what the temperature is like in Texas in July and August. We saw quite a bit of wildlife while here such as, humming birds, turkeys, deer, chipmunks, ground squirrels, elk and a pair of owls. At the end of August it was time to leave the cabin, Mike was getting it ready for winter, so we moved the bus down to Roadrunner RV Park, to start our 1st work camping job, we plan on staying until the end of September.
