Passport to Texas

Dale Blasingame with Lucy at Caprock Canyon State Park. Photo credit: Dale Blasingame

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This is Passport to Texas

Texas State University lecturer, Dale Blasingame visited all 95 Texas state parks in just one year; he wrote about it for the January/February issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine.

I got the essence of the parks, even though there were some of them that I didn’t spend a ton of time at.

Dale spent most of his time in parks with diverse hiking opportunities, and preferred going solo.

I like to travel alone. I’m kind of weird like that. I like being on my own schedule and not having to worry about if other people are having fun. I realize I’m kind of a pain in the “you know what” to travel with because I’m always going off path to try and go see something.

One day, while hiking at Buescher State Park he met a man hiking with his dog.

And we didn’t really talk much, but just silently hiked together. And I was watching his dog the whole time, and when we got to the end of the trail where he was heading out, I turned and I said: Do you like hiking with that thing? And he goes, Aw man. You will never regret it.

On the way home, Dale noticed a rescue dog adoption day at his neighborhood pet store, which is where he met and adopted 1-year-old Lucy.

She’s been to about 50 parks with me. So, one of my goals is I want to take her to the rest of the parks that she hasn’t been to. I don’t think she’ll care, but it would matter to me. I’ve only had her for about a year. But, I cannot think of what life was like without her.

Read Dale Blasingame’s article One is Not Enough in Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.