Gaines County Park and the golf course sit together north of Seminole

Drive north out of Seminole on US-385 about eight minutes and you reach the patch of ground the county built for getting people together: Gaines County Park, sitting right alongside the 18-hole Gaines County Golf Course. The park itself, addressed at 853 US-385, has a community building, a playground, and barbecue pits, the makings of a family reunion, a 4-H banquet, or a Saturday that ends with somebody's brisket.

This is how a farming county does parks. It isn't really about a jogging loop; it's about a covered building big enough for the whole extended family and a pit to cook on while the kids run. The county rents the community center out, and it keeps 24 RV hookups at the park too: $15 a day, or $7.50 if you're a county resident, booked through the golf course pro shop at (432) 758-3808.

If you golf, that pro-shop number is also your tee-time line, and the course doubles as the gatekeeper for the RV spots. It's a practical little cluster — green grass, a place to sleep, a place to cook, and a clubhouse, stitched together at one bend in the highway north of town.